BitTorrent in Focus: TV-series are Hot
Written by Ernesto on May 17, 2007Almost 50% of all people using BitTorrent at any given point in time do this to download TV-series, while only 10% of the available torrents are TV related. People who download TV-shows also have one of the best share ratios, only Anime fanatics beat them.
The statistics presented here are gathered by SumoTorrent, and based on a sample of more than 400.000 .torrent files collected from several public BitTorrent sites. From now on these statistics will be published on a monthly basis, so we can keep an eye on changes in the download and sharing preferences of the average BitTorrent user.
What is Hot?
TV-series are by far the most shared files on BitTorrent. Nearly 50% of all the people who use BitTorrent at any given point in time do this to download a TV-show, even though the number of available torrents are much lower than for Music or Video. The second most popular torrent category based on the number of downloaders and uploaders is Video (15.7%), followed by Games (8.6%), Music (7.8) and of course XXX (6.0%).
As we will see later on, these figures are quite different from the number of .torrents that are available.
The statistics are calculated based on the info from the trackers, this means that someone who’s downloading 2 music albums at the same time is counted twice. However, we don’t expect any significant differences between the categories, so the percentages should be pretty accurate.
What type of torrents are offered?
Music (25.9%) and Video (24.2%), followed by Applications (13.3%), are in the lead if we look at the number of available torrents. Games (7.8%), XXX (5.1%) and Anime (4.3%) are less popular.
Even though 50% of the people use BitTorrent to download TV-series, only 10% of the available .torrents on public trackers are TV related. This means that on average the swarms (seeds + peers) are greater for TV-torrents, not a big surprise because an average episode of a popular TV-show like Lost is downloaded by more than 500.000 people in a week.
Share Ratios?
Sharing is one of key features of BitTorrent etiquette. The more people that are sharing a file, the faster other people are able to download it.
If we take a look at the sharing ratios of the categories we see that Anime fans have an impressive share ratio of 2.5, and are sharing the most. Anime fans are followed by people who download Music (ratio 1.9) and Applications (ratio 1.5) respectively.
XXX downloaders are probably looking for a quick fix, and are more the “hit-and-run” type (ratio 0.38). The category Video has the lowest share ratio, a disappointing 0.27, let’s hope we see some improvement there next month when we publish more statistics and perhaps even some emerging trends.
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Seeing this charts I am sure that video sharing works the best within private trackers.
Great Article Torrentfreak! very informative.
Nice article !
http://www.sumotorrent.com seems like a good site too !
Well I for one am astounded that only 5% of torrents are porn
[quote]Anime fans are followed by people who download Music (ratio 1.9)[/quote]
Something is wrong here.. the char says: TV:1.87 and MUSIC:1.08
Is the char off?
Tnank you for this interesting article
Nice!
(This shows that the people from Joost know what they’re doing.)
Many people I know download TV torrents. EZTV is without question one of the best sites on the internet. Many people work off shifts and don’t mind watching TV shows when doing other computer activities. I only watch one show on schedule the rest I download. Content providers should really take a look at this.
[quote comment="101516"]Well I for one am astounded that only 5% of torrents are porn[/quote]
Did you count in the private trackers… I dont think porn is spread a lot on open channels, the mass is going private (with our without encrypting, etc)
It’s a little silly to claim that the statistics pulled off of one tracker hold true for the entire internet. While it wouldn’t surprise me if your claims were actually true, I’d really rather prefer you make claims at a level that your evidence can support.
Great post! Thanks for doing the hard yards
After viewing this data I would say you could almost assume that the network ratings being highest ever is somewhat correlated to the availability of content. The average viewer now has access to DVR and DVR solutions that allow him to catalogue his favorite shows, and the more tech-saavy user has access to BitTorrent allowing the same thing. Viewers tune in regularly to stay at pace with the story, and when unable to do so, fill in the gaps with the solution of choice. This is starting to result in extended seasons, such as NBC’s Heroes: Origins spin-off and The Office being renewed for 30 episodes next season.
what it actually shows is that there is a discrepancy between what is stored within the torrent mindshare and what is actively being downloaded.
what a lot of people miss is that not only are torrents a great way to distribute content, they are also a very powerful tool to archive and store data.
what these graphs show is that TV shows are very popular to download, but movies and music are more popular to store long term. makes sense, no?
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