14 DAY TRIAL // The latest data from the BitTorrent world shows a more diverse cast of BitTorrent clients dividing up the market, though there are still only a few clients battling for position.
Surprising no one, uTorrent is on top of the pile, with almost half of BitTorrent file-sharers running it.
The BitTorrent-focused blog TorrentFreak, with the help of the Tribler P2P research team at Delft University of Technology, put together a picture of the BitTorrent landscape.
Using a batch of 557,536 unique peers, the team looked at what BitTorrent client each of them were using. Almost half, 48 percent, of them were running uTorrent.
The popularity of the lightweight BitTorrent client is no secret, uTorrent recently passed the 100 million users mark.
Coming in at number two, no big surprise here either apart maybe from its growing market share, is Vuze with 22.49 percent usage, 125,417 peers.
Vuze is followed by the BitTorrent Mainline client, which is essentially a rebranded uTorrent, apart from the Linux version, with 13 percent of those in the study using it.
Transmission, the open-source BitTorrent client for Linux and Mac makes a somewhat surprising entry at number four, being used by 7 percent of file-sharers in the study.
Moving down the list, Libtorrent ran on the computers of 1.02 percent of the users, while BitComent, the once popular client, managed to get only 1.01 percentmarket share.
All other BitTorrent clients put together only added up to 1.27 percent of use, however, it was impossible to determine the client used by 6.22 percent of those in the study.
All-in-all, the picture is clear, uTorrent dominates and it shows no signs of losing any strength. The only real competitor is Vuze. Transmission could put up a good fight, but it's not available on Windows, greatly reducing its potential user base.
UPDATE: Note that the data only covers the 'western' world, i.e. popular Chinese BitTorrent clients, which may have a greater absolute market share, due to their big numbers in China, are not included in the study.
uTorrent for Windows is avaialble for download here. uTorrent for Mac is avaialble for download here.
BitTorrent Mainline for Windows is avaialble for download here. BitTorrent Mainline for Mac is avaialble for download here. BitTorrent Mainline (5.2.2 - a legacy version) for Linux is available for download here.
Vuze for Windows is avaialble for download here. Vuze for Mac is avaialble for download here. Vuze for Linux is availabel for download here.
Transmission for Mac is available for download here. Transmission for Linux is availabel for download here.
BitComet for Windows is avaialble for download here.