uTorrent Gains Popularity, Azureus Loses Ground
Written by Ernesto on December 16, 2007With an install rate of more than 5% on Windows PCs worldwide, uTorrent is now by far the most popular BitTorrent client. Azureus, the most installed BitTorrent application of last year fell back to the third place.
The graph on the right (click to enlarge) is based on data published by Digital Music News based on reports from PC Pitstop, a company that gathers data by “inspecting” the computers of users that try their free online virus / spyware scanners. The data used in this report are collected from Windows registry and table entries of over a million PC’s.
The percentages reflect the percentage of PCs that has these applications installed. September last year Azureus was installed on more than 3% of all PCs but their install rate has declined by more than 30% this year, while uTorrent’s install rate nearly tripled.
In the table below we have listed the 5 most installed BitTorrent applications. It is interesting to not that Azureus moved from the first to the third spot over the past year. The BitTorrent mainline client is now runner up. This means that BitTorrent Inc. now owns the two most popular BitTorrent clients.
The percentages in the table indicate the install base of the most popular BitTorrent clients:
| Rank | Application | Installed on % Desktops |
| 1. | uTorrent | 5.56% |
| 2. | BitTorrent (a.k.a. mainline) | 2.28% |
| 3. | Azureus | 2.11% |
| 4. | Bitcomet | 1.89% |
| 5. | Bitlord | 1.27% |
From the data where the report is based on we further learn that Limewire’s popularity is slowly declining. However, with an install base of almost 18% it is still the P2P application that is installed on most desktop computers. Unfortunately Digital Music News has trouble interpreting their own data, they claim in their press release that it is 36.4%, but that is the market share compared to other P2P clients (shame on you!).
Apart from this tiny mistake, there are a few more concerns about the usability of the data. For example, install rates do not equal usage. The fact that someone installed a P2P client does not mean that they actually use it. So the report can’t say much about the popularity of a filesharing network or application. Secondly, it could be that Azureus and BitTorrent Mainline are installed on almost an equal number of PCs, but that the BitTorrent mainline client is hardly ever used. For instance, novices may start with the mainline client, but move on to better BitTorrent clients later on. Lastly, the report is based on a sample of people who voluntarily did an online spyware scan, something to think about.
Perhaps an even more important comment on the data collection for this report, uTorrent doesn’t necessarily use the Windows registry. So the real install rate for uTorrent might be even higher. Also, Azureus is a true multi-platform client, whilst this test is only for windows based systems.
In summing up we think it is (despite all the flaws) safe to say that uTorrent is becoming more popular while Azureus is losing ground. Whether this is due to negative factors affecting Azureus (such as the rebranding to Vuze, Java or the heavy use of resources), or positive factors around the mainline and µTorrent clients (such as the small install size, and low system requirements) it certainly shows a slide for Azureus.
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Some of us like to cruise in a plush, warm, accessory laden motorhome with lots of toys. We really don’t care about how fast we are cruising or how much gas we are burning.
Some of us like to zip along on a basic scooter with little in the way of creature comforts. We may be a bit chilly at times, but we can get there fast and not use much energy.
Azureus is for the motorhome types, uTorrent is for the scooter enthusiats. There is plenty of room for both on the highway, so whatever turns your crank.
Mind you, I am anxiously awaiting to see what is included in the shiny, new 2008 models. I’ll cautionsly dump either vehicle in a microsecond if someone builds a flashy hybrid (no loyalty whatsoever).
[quote comment="241049"]Anyone know where I can download uTorrent build 474 v.1.6?[/quote]
Check their site?
One of the reason for uTorrents success is of course the low memory usage. I rather have a app that only does the basic things which I need than a app that does multiple things but at the cost of memory.
@ #14 - Don’t you love it when noob wannabe’s talk out their ass? :P
“Find a definitive benchmark of what people are using on their pc’s and it may hold some water. Using one website’s statistics on what people have installed doesn’t really count for anything.”
Here’s a definitive benchmark for you. Just look at the peer list of any torrent you have running. Way more uTorrent clients listed than Azureus. In fact it appears to be about the same proportion as the percentages mentioned in the post. And I’d say that’s about as definitive as you can get because this is showing actual usage, not just installs.
“One thing that lets utorrent down significantly is its complete lack of peer banning.”
What a tard. uTorrent not only DOES have peer banning, but it does it quicker and more efficiently. It’s one thing to be an ignorant, uninformed fanboi. It’s quite another to put that ignorance on display for all to see by talking crap on a subject you are painfully clueless on.
“So I went and grabbed Azureus…..”
I have my doubts that you would be capable of grabbing your Azureus with both hands. :P
@ #47 - You can get all past builds of uTorrent as well as older versions of just about anything at this cool little site.
http://www.oldversion.com/
You can turn off the Vuze layer to get the old 2.5 look with the 3.0 features. In my experience it downloads much faster than uTorrent, and I like that it’s open source. Resource usage isn’t even that bad, it’s at 80,000K right now for me; firefox uses much more.
And #50, Azureus’s PEX and DHT is incompatible with uTorrent’s, so you will see more of whichever client you are using at the moment.
Long Live rTorrent!!!
[quote comment="240768"]uTorrent beats Azureus hands down - the only reason I’m using Azureus is because there isn’t a Linux version of uTorrent. If there was, I would switch right away. But KTorrent has been getting better, so I might have to switch to that. There’s no doubt that Azureus/Java hogs RAM and CPU cycles,
something that must be pretty detrimental to its popularity.[/quote]
uTorrent runs great under linux. Install wine, create an account for it with, utorrent the only app starting, and run it as an Xvnc session. Put in the web interface and you’re good to go.
[quote comment="240745"]That sucks, I love Azureus.[/quote]
Same :(
azureus still remains the best.
Azureus has it’s pluses with nice pluggings and such. But for us who want to be able to play a game, browser the web, or pretty much do anything while downloading a torrent, should use the “low consuming” uTorrent.
[quote comment="240783"]Uh, James, you don’t need to “down the whole thing” with bittorrent either. Seasons are usually just file folders of single episodes and any good bittorrent client will let you select which of the files/episodes you want to download. That said I think uTorrent is the best, and I’ll miss it when I move to the mac.[/quote]
No you wont. Check out Transmission. compact,Fast and stable
I’ve used both Azureus and uTorrent and I have to say uTorrent is just simpler and easier to use.
I tried to like Azureus because it offer many features that uTorrent lacks. However, I found myself not needing them and probably only a few user actually do. If they should offer a light weight version of Azureus, without all the bells and whistles perhaps then it would win over more people. But for now, it really is a resource hog especially because it uses java as its code. I’ve had way too many times when my CPU got up to 100% just running Azureus with huge memory leaks. A bitorrent program shouldn’t need to use all 3.0 GHZ of my P4 and +500 MB of ram just to run.
Perhaps they fixed some of those issues in the past several months, but I think I’ll stick with uTorrent (version 1.6 build 474) just because its so stable, simple, and easy to use.
[quote comment="240822"]Azureus made any computer it ran on slow, like norton did when it would scan. If I set uTorrent right, I can surf teh internets and shoop pics and not notice a slow down on performance.[/quote]
Wow! What a bunch of tards!
Make them go away!!
[quote]uTorrent is so heavy on resources, you should all use rTorrent now :D[/quote]
Oh God More Tards!
the irony uTorrent is owned by Bittorrent Inc owned by MPAA is not missed
I liked Azureus, but it was just too much of a system hog.
Dunno how much it changed, but the last time I used it, it still had more features than uTorrent has now.
Using uTorrent now, because of size and speed however, it still has some annoying issues. Like the tendency to slow down (or completely block) internet browsing, while downloading files with a big amount of peers (even if rate is limited).
Azureus running 4 torrents,
downspeed=3-4MiBit/s upspeed=2-4MiBit/s
Working set = 55K
Virtual Mem = 70K (private bytes)
Virtual Size = 290K
CPU-usage = 1-3%
This is acceptable in my book, I don’t consider it excessive resource-usage for a Java-app ..
I’m sorry but there’s no discussion : Azureus is the most advanced torrent-client out there, no other clients come close in features ..
These facts are as useless as a straw pole vote! How many people use these spyware checkers anyway? I don’t. This is useless dribble.
Best part is, utorrent can run on linux using Wine!
rtorrent (http://libtorrent.rakshasa.no/) the best out there. if your a nix user that is.
[quote comment="241085"]You can turn off the Vuze layer to get the old 2.5 look with the 3.0 features.[/quote]
Uhhh NO, thats NOT good enough dude….’the so-called Vuse content layer’ (creme de la crap) WILL NOT exist on my computer….period. I don’t trust it, I don’t like it…….period. It seems to be akin to spyware and adware. It $ucks BIGtime.
uTorrent is just fine to use if you have a vpn tunnel or a modified version of peerguardian because they both block bittorrent inc in all ways/shapes/forms/fashions (if you set it up right) ;)
azureus 2.5.0.4 <3
Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.
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