Usage share of BitTorrent clients

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The usage share of BitTorrent clients is the percentage of users that use a particular BitTorrent client, regardless of version.

Contents

2020

A study conducted in March 2020 by TorrentFreak [1]
RankApplicationMarket Share
1 μTorrent 68.6%
2 BitTorrent 6.6%
3 Libtorrent (μTorrent's web interface reports this as its client ID)6.3%
4 Transmission 5.1%
5 MediaGet 3.7%
6 qBittorrent 3.4%
7 Zona 3.3%
8 Deluge 0.9%
9 BitComet 0.6%
10 BiglyBT (operated by former developers of Vuze)0.3%
11 Free Download Manager 0.2%
12 BitSpirit 0.2%
13 BitLord 0.1%
14 Tribler <0.1%
14 FrostWire <0.1%
14 Tixati <0.1%
14 tTorrent <0.1%
14 aTorrent <0.1%
14 PicoTorrent <0.1%

2015

Lifehacker, a software weblog, took a survey of 13,823 readers' preferred BitTorrent clients in May 2015. It showed that μTorrent still maintains a sizable lead over competitors, despite concerns over adware and bloatware. Runner-up Transmission was praised for being lightweight, while qBittorrent was praised for being cross-platform and open-source, Deluge for its plugin library, and Tixati for its simplicity. [2] Vuze, another notable client, failed to make an appearance in the top five for the first time.

Poll data from: Lifehacker [2]
RankApplicationPercentage of users' preferred clientsNumber of votes
1μTorrent42.47%5,870
2Transmission21.23%2,935
3qBittorrent18.75%2,592
4Deluge10.7%1,479
5Tixati6.85%947

2009

Delft University of Technology

A study by the Tribler P2P research team at the Delft University of Technology. To generate this data, samples were taken from a number of swarms of users which were then used to identify which BitTorrent client each user was using, this data was used by TorrentFreak in the table below:

Samples of Global BitTorrent Client Usage Share (Percent & Peers)
SourceDate & Age μTorrent
Vuze
BitTorrent
(mainline)
BitComet
Transmission
FlashGet
Unknown
Tuotu
libtorrent Xunlei
Other
Sample
Size
[3] 16 September 2011;
12 years ago
 ? ? ?100%
557,536
[4]
[5]
4 December 2009;
14 years ago
100%
357,301,730
[6] 18 October 2009;
14 years ago
 ? ?100%
17,221
[7] 14 August 2009;
14 years ago
56.81%18.13%11.79%4.71%2.95% ?4.21% ? ? ?1.40%100%
165,000+
[8] 24 June 2009;
14 years ago
55.84%16.85%12.01%6.50%1.60% ?4.02% ? ? ?3.17%100%
150,000+

2007

Digital Music News

Digital Music News collected the data from PC Pitstop, a company that gathers data from computers using their free online virus and malware scanners. The program scans Windows Registry to find which clients have been installed, more than a million Microsoft Windows computers were surveyed.

Global install rate data from: Digital Music News
RankApplicationInstall % on Windows desktops
1 LimeWire 18%
2 μTorrent 5.56%
3 BitTorrent (mainline) 2.28%
4 Vuze 2.11%
5 BitComet 1.89%
6 Bitlord 1.27%

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">BitComet</span> BitTorrent, FTP and HTTP client

BitComet is a cross-protocol BitTorrent, HTTP and FTP client written in C++ for Microsoft Windows and available in 52 different languages. Its first public release was version 0.28. The current BitComet logo has been used since version 0.50.

BitTorrent is a proprietary adware BitTorrent client developed by Bram Cohen and Rainberry, Inc. used for uploading and downloading files via the BitTorrent protocol. BitTorrent was the first client written for the protocol. It is often nicknamed Mainline by developers denoting its official origins. Since version 6.0 the BitTorrent client has been a rebranded version of μTorrent. As a result, it is no longer open source. It is currently available for Microsoft Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android. There are currently two versions of the software, "BitTorrent Classic" which inherits the historical version numbering, and "BitTorrent Web", which uses its own version numbering.

A BitTorrent tracker is a special type of server that assists in the communication between peers using the BitTorrent protocol.

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File sharing is a method of distributing electronically stored information such as computer programs and digital media. Below is a list of file sharing applications, most of them make use of peer-to-peer file sharing technologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transmission (BitTorrent client)</span> BitTorrent client

Transmission is a BitTorrent client which features a variety of user interfaces on top of a cross-platform back-end. Transmission is free software licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, with parts under the MIT License.

Ludvig "Ludde" Strigeus is a Swedish programmer, best known for developing software such as the BitTorrent client μTorrent, OpenTTD, and Spotify.

Peer exchange or PEX is a communications protocol that augments the BitTorrent file sharing protocol. It allows a group of users that are collaborating to share a given file to do so more swiftly and efficiently.

Rainberry, Inc., formerly known as BitTorrent, Inc., is an American company responsible for μTorrent and BitTorrent Mainline. The company was founded on September 22, 2004 by Bram Cohen and Ashwin Navin. It was successful during the Great Recession under the leadership of CEO Eric Klinker. In 2018, the company was acquired by cryptocurrency startup TRON, and Bram Cohen left the company. In March 2022, the SEC charged Rainberry with fraud for selling cryptocurrencies Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT) as unregistered securities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deluge (software)</span> BitTorrent client

Deluge BitTorrent Client is a free and open-source, cross-platform BitTorrent client written in Python. Deluge uses a front and back end architecture where libtorrent, a software library written in C++ which provides the application's networking logic, is connected to one of various front ends including a text console, the web interface and a graphical desktop interface using GTK through the project's own Python bindings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribler</span> Peer-to-peer filesharing software and protocol

Tribler is an open source decentralized BitTorrent client which allows anonymous peer-to-peer by default. Tribler is based on the BitTorrent protocol and uses an overlay network for content searching. Due to this overlay network, Tribler does not require an external website or indexing service to discover content. The user interface of Tribler is very basic and focused on ease of use instead of diversity of features. Tribler is available for Linux, Windows, and OS X.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vuze</span> BitTorrent client

Vuze is a BitTorrent client used to transfer files via the BitTorrent protocol. Vuze is written in Java, and uses the Azureus Engine. In addition to downloading data linked to .torrent files, Azureus allows users to view, publish and share original DVD and HD quality video content. Content is presented through channels and categories containing TV shows, music videos, movies, video games, series and others.

The following is a general comparison of BitTorrent clients, which are computer programs designed for peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol.

libtorrent

libtorrent is an open-source implementation of the BitTorrent protocol. It is written in and has its main library interface in C++. Its most notable features are support for Mainline DHT, IPv6, HTTP seeds and μTorrent's peer exchange. libtorrent uses Boost, specifically Boost.Asio to gain its platform independence. It is known to build on Windows and most Unix-like operating systems.

Micro Transport Protocol is an open User Datagram Protocol-based (UDP-based) variant of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing protocol intended to mitigate poor latency and other congestion control problems found in conventional BitTorrent over Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), while providing reliable, ordered delivery.

μTorrent Proprietary adware BitTorrent client

μTorrent, or uTorrent, is a proprietary adware BitTorrent client owned and developed by Rainberry, Inc. The "μ" in its name comes from the SI prefix "micro-", referring to the program's small memory footprint: the program was designed to use minimal computer resources while offering functionality comparable to larger BitTorrent clients such as Vuze or BitComet. μTorrent became controversial in 2015 when many users unknowingly accepted a default option during installation which also installed a cryptocurrency miner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Popcorn Time</span> BitTorrent client and media player software

Popcorn Time is a multi-platform, free software BitTorrent client that includes an integrated media player. The application provides a piracy-based alternative to subscription-based video streaming services such as Netflix. Popcorn Time uses sequential downloading to stream video listed by several torrent websites, and third-party trackers can also be added manually. The legality of the software depends on the jurisdiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tixati</span> BitTorrent client

Tixati is a proprietary Linux and Windows BitTorrent client written in C++. It has standalone and portable versions with each new client version.

References

  1. "uTorrent is the Most Used BitTorrent Client By Far". April 5, 2020.
  2. 1 2 Henry, Alan (19 May 2015). "Most Popular BitTorrent Client: μTorrent". Lifehacker. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
  3. TorrentFreak
  4. TorrentFreak
  5. EZTV
  6. Tribler
  7. TorrentFreak
  8. TorrentFreak