BitTorrent dethroned as the main source of internet's upstream traffic

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Dethroned king: Originally created by programmer Brian Cohen in 2001, BitTorrent provided an extremely effective peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol for sending files and other digital content over the internet. These days, the technology is not the data-sharing powerhouse it once was just a few years ago.

While internet traffic continues to grow at an accelerated pace, BitTorrent has seemingly ceased to contribute a substantial portion of upstream data sources. Canadian network intelligence company Sandvine recently released its latest report on "internet phenomena," highlighting significant changes in the network traffic market.

Twenty years ago, before the Web 2.0 revolution, BitTorrent seemingly generated around 35 percent of all internet traffic. File sharing and peer-to-peer applications were the main drivers of data traffic then, as there were no other potential sources that could generate a similar amount of traffic.

Today, the internet is a very different place. Video streaming and social services such as YouTube, Netflix, and TikTok dominate global internet traffic now, and most piracy-related activities have shifted from P2P networks to streaming websites as well. While BitTorrent has been replaced as the main source of internet downloads, it was still contributing its fair share of upstream traffic.

In 2013, BitTorrent still accounted for a third of all upload traffic on the internet. Two years ago, it amounted to 10 percent of upstream traffic. Now, according to Sandvine's latest intelligence data, the BitTorrent protocol has lost all its appeal among internet users. The top 10 upstream data sources are now mostly related to cloud storage, messaging, and video streaming, the Canadian company says, with video and social media monopolizing more than half of all upstream traffic on both fixed and mobile broadband connections.

BitTorrent still plays a role within fixed access networks, where the file-sharing protocol accounts for four percent of all upstream bandwidth. However, services like iCloud and YouTube generate much more traffic compared to the peer-to-peer network.

Sandvine states that BitTorrent can still be considered a "significant factor" in traffic generation due to the relatively small number of people using the network. Piracy is possibly the main driver here, but researchers and academic institutions also use the protocol to share vast troves of data.

Sandvine expects that BitTorrent traffic will continue to decline in the future as users increasingly focus on cloud and streaming services as their main sources for content.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/102300-bittorrent-dethroned-main-source-internet-upstream-traffic.html

 

[toooooot]

I am also highly pleased with free streaming sites right now.
Every new movie, good speed, good quality available.
Surely, many would rather watch this way than run a vpn and torrent.

 

[Squid Surprise]

"Now, according to Sandvine's latest intelligence data, the BitTorrent protocol has lost all its appeal among internet users."

No... 4% of all internet traffic is still quite significant...

also - video streaming was virtually non-existant back when bittorrent began. While the percentages are clearly changing, are LESS people actually using bittorrent? Or are they just streaming AS WELL.

I would like to see the raw data download numbers... I suspect that bittorent DATA has actually increased - just not as quickly as streaming data. Internet usage in total has dramatically increased in the past several years - percentages, while relevant, don't tell the whole picture here.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

What this article misses is that the size of torrents has come down due to better encoding techniques, with h265 you can get 1080p at a fraction of the size of the h264 verison, with games they are often selective download and heavily compressed, media torrents will likely continue to get smaller.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

"Now, according to Sandvine's latest intelligence data, the BitTorrent protocol has lost all its appeal among internet users."

No... 4% of all internet traffic is still quite significant...

also - video streaming was virtually non-existant back when bittorrent began. While the percentages are clearly changing, are LESS people actually using bittorrent? Or are they just streaming AS WELL.

I would like to see the raw data download numbers... I suspect that bittorent DATA has actually increased - just not as quickly as streaming data. Internet usage in total has dramatically increased in the past several years - percentages, while relevant, don't tell the whole picture here.

In the USA alone, internet traffic in 203 was 53 exabyte. Last year it was 456 exabytes. That's 8.6 times more data. That would mean that, if bittorrent traffic in the US was 4% today, it would have been about the same amount, imperially, in 2013. The traffic everywhere else has increased dramatically, bittorrent appears to be relatively level.

 

[p51d007]

Keep jacking up the prices of streaming service, not to mention "needing" 3-4-5 services to watch what you want, and you'll see an uptick in P2P. As movie/tv services see more people going to "free" websites to watch the movies, even if they are outside of the USA, they will find ways to shut them down, again that will increase P2P
sites.

 

[Squid Surprise]

In the USA alone, internet traffic in 203 was 53 exabyte. Last year it was 456 exabytes. That's 8.6 times more data. That would mean that, if bittorrent traffic in the US was 4% today, it would have been about the same amount, imperially, in 2013. The traffic everywhere else has increased dramatically, bittorrent appears to be relatively level.

Well, according to the 2023 report, 33EB (33,000PB) per DAY was the traffic... P2P was 4% - or about 1.33EB (1333PB) per day...

In 2003, there was 22 PB of traffic a day... 35% was P2P - or about 7.7 PB

So... There has been more than a 173x increase in P2P traffic since 2003...

 

[erickmendes]

I'm holding to see how this news is going to impact downstream internet traffic:

https://www.techspot.com/community/...in-texas-due-to-age-verification-laws.284877/

 

[coryjfowler]

I am not sure who Brian Cohen is, but BRAM Cohen invented what you're article is talking about.

 

[TaintedMcMuffin]

Did the study have a way of calculating the BitTorrent usage that’s clouded behind VPN? Anyone using it in the US pretty much has to use a VPN to do it so that their ISP doesn’t snoop and literally cancel their internet.

 

[Aus spot]

I am not sure who Brian Cohen is, but BRAM Cohen invented what you're article is talking about.

You sir are a sarcastic genius.

 

[Axeia]

What this article misses is that the size of torrents has come down due to better encoding techniques, with h265 you can get 1080p at a fraction of the size of the h264 verison, with games they are often selective download and heavily compressed, media torrents will likely continue to get smaller.

Ehhh as someone who likes watching anime, back when Naruto was popular 250-300mb power episode was pretty normal. Terribly high compression.
Nowadays there's plenty of anime around 1gb per episode. The better codecs are no match for the demand for higher quality (and resolution).

The movie watchers want 4k now, not 480-720p.