The usage share of BitTorrent clients is the percentage of users that use a particular BitTorrent client, regardless of version.
torrentfreak.com2020
A study conducted in March 2020 by TorrentFreak1| Rank | Application | Market 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: Lifehacker3| Rank | Application | Percentage of users' preferred clients | Number of votes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | μTorrent | 42.47% | 5,870 |
| 2 | Transmission | 21.23% | 2,935 |
| 3 | qBittorrent | 18.75% | 2,592 |
| 4 | Deluge | 10.7% | 1,479 |
| 5 | Tixati | 6.85% | 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)| Source | Date & Age | μTorrent | Vuze | BitTorrent(mainline) | BitComet | Transmission | FlashGet | Unknown | Tuotu | libtorrent | Xunlei | Other | SampleSize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 16 September 2011;13 years ago (2011-09-16) | 47.97%267,466 | 22.49%125,417 | 13.01%72,536 | 1.01%5,638 | 7%39,011 | ? | 6.22%34,703 | ? | 1.02%5,703 | ? | 1.27%7,062 | 100%557,536 |
| 56 | 4 December 2009;15 years ago (2009-12-04) | 25.77%92,086,035 | 24.08%86,055,354 | 4.82%17,207,544 | 4.31%15,403,400 | 3.26%11,637,110 | 1.09%3,882,628 | 1%3,590,584 | 0.71%2,531,472 | 0.63%2,251,736 | 29.31%104,717,386 | 3.02%10,806,362 | 100%357,301,730 |
| 7 | 18 October 2009;15 years ago (2009-10-18) | 60.16%10,361 | 14.22%2,449 | 8.65%1,489 | 4.43%763 | 3.65%628 | ? | 7.97%1,373 | ? | 0.31%53 | 0.02%3 | 0.59%102 | 100%17,221 |
| 8 | 14 August 2009;15 years ago (2009-08-14) | 56.81% | 18.13% | 11.79% | 4.71% | 2.95% | ? | 4.21% | ? | ? | ? | 1.40% | 100%165,000+ |
| 9 | 24 June 2009;15 years ago (2009-06-24) | 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 rate10| Rank | Application | Install % 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% |
References
"uTorrent is the Most Used BitTorrent Client By Far". April 5, 2020. https://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-is-the-most-used-bittorrent-client-by-far-200405/ ↩
Henry, Alan (19 May 2015). "Most Popular BitTorrent Client: μTorrent". Lifehacker. Retrieved 3 May 2017. https://lifehacker.com/5813348/five-best-bittorrent-applications/1705622513 ↩
Henry, Alan (19 May 2015). "Most Popular BitTorrent Client: μTorrent". Lifehacker. Retrieved 3 May 2017. https://lifehacker.com/5813348/five-best-bittorrent-applications/1705622513 ↩
TorrentFreak https://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-keeps-bittorrent-lead-bitcomet-fades-away-110916/ ↩
TorrentFreak https://torrentfreak.com/thunder-blasts-utorrents-market-share-away-091204/ ↩
TorrentFreak https://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-still-on-top-bitcomets-market-share-plummets-090814/ ↩
TorrentFreak https://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-dominates-bittorrent-client-market-share-090624/ ↩
Van der Sar, Ernesto (2007-12-16), "uTorrent Gains Popularity, Azureus Loses Ground", TorrentFreak, retrieved 2024-08-02 https://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-gains-popularity-azureus-loses-ground-071216/ ↩