14 DAY TRIAL // Netflix has now become the single biggest source of traffic in North America, at least if you choose to display the data from a specific point of view. Netflix is the biggest downstream traffic source during peak hours, making up 29.7 of it in North America.
This would seem like a win over peer-to-peer traffic, which is mostly linked to piracy, especially movie and TV piracy, but BitTorrent traffic is still holding strong in North America and is still king in Europe.
According to data from Sandvine, which makes networking equipment for large customers and is also known for creating BitTorrent-throttling hardware, legal video streaming from Netflix is gaining on all other types of traffic.
"In North America, Netflix is now 29.7% of peak downstream traffic and has become the largest source of Internet traffic overall. Currently, Real-Time Entertainment applications consume 49.2% of peak aggregate traffic, up from 29.5% in 2009 – a 60% increase," Sandvine's report reveals.
When averaged over an entire day, Netflix makes up 22.2 percent of all traffic, slightly ahead of BitTorrent which is at 21.6 percent. Regular HTTP browsing takes up 16.8 percent and YouTube alone accounts for 8.2 percent.
In Europe, peer-2-peer traffic takes up an even bigger chunk. During peak times, BitTorrent traffic is 21.63 percent of all traffic, followed by HTTP traffic with 20.47 percent and YouTube with 14.13 percent.
"In Latin America, Social Networking (overwhelmingly Facebook) is a bigger source of traffic than YouTube, representing almost 14% of network traffic," Sandvine revealed other interesting numbers.
"In Europe, Real-Time Entertainment continues a steady climb, rising to 33.2% of peak aggregate traffic, up from 31.9% last fall," it added.
"In the UK, BBC’s iPlayer is 6.6% of peak downstream traffic, reflecting the demand for localized content in many markets," the report also revealed. This is another interesting number indicating that, wherever users get legitimate alternatives to piracy, they will use them, be them Netflix, iPlayer or any similar service.