Torrenting was responsible for up to 35% of all internet upload traffic

The era of Internet piracy, characterized by torrents and file-sharing, appears to be fading into obscurity as newer technology trends take the lead in global Internet traffic. According to a recent survey conducted by Sandvine, a Canadian broadband management company, BitTorrent has officially lost its position in the uploading traffic charts to emerging trends such as cloud storage, streaming services, and TikTok. The survey, unfortunately gated behind a paywall, was summarized by TorrentFreak, revealing a significant decline in torrent-based upload traffic over the past two decades, primarily due to the rise of streaming platforms.

Sandvine's study highlights Apple's iCloud as the top upstream app for fixed-access devices, while TikTok and Facebook Messenger dominate mobile upload traffic. In the past, torrents were the primary source of upload bandwidth, particularly during the peak of peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing applications. However, with the advent of streaming services, torrenting has steadily declined, reaching just 4% of the web's upload traffic as of 2024. While there remains a dedicated group of individuals engaged in file-sharing activities, it is evident that torrenting's prominence has significantly diminished. TorrentFreak, recognizing this shift, suggests that this may be the last time they report on BitTorrent's popularity. It's worth noting that the study's findings are not comprehensive, as they only consider BitTorrent usage and do not account for individuals using VPNs, which have become standard practice for many users.