Unfortunately Itch doesn't share download info linked to specific accounts past a window of about a month. And no one in THAT window looks unusual. I agree, I don't think it's piracy, because if people really want to go that route, there are far easier ways than sharing an itch account. I'm not aware of third party itch clients period, apart from the one Itch makes. Could one of those malware assholes be downloading the game to inject shit into it and then spam it with those link comments? Sure, but again, no reason they need to download it so many times. Regardless, it seems like things have returned to normal for now.
Viewing post in Uh, why did the downloads for GT suddenly jump by 6x? comments
Yeah, just checked on the itch client status and, while there are third-party clients mentioned in the readme of their source code, neither they nor the main client had updates that remotely coincided with the uptick in downloads. Even if they did, they're Android and iOS clients, so it'd still be baffling.
Given that things returned to normal, my own (weak / unverifiable) hypotheses are either "A person trying to download the updates had connection issues" or "Someone with a lot of reach reminded their friends, who had already bought CS:GT, about the updates a while back."
Thanks for bearing with me, I just like mysteries like this, hahah.