According to Sandvine’s (broadband service company) recent research, P2P file-sharing has declined, with Amazon and Hulu struggling to win receding US attention spans. At the same time, Netflix and YouTube account for over 50% of downstream online traffic in the United States and Canada. The results of the research were published in Sandvine’s biannual Global Internet Phenomena Report and are based on information collected from the company’s 250 network customers across the world.



It is the first time the two video streaming services surpassed the 50% mark of all US Internet traffic. This also means a significant decline in the use of P2P services: BitTorrent, the protocol used for peer-to-peer file-sharing, currently accounts for 7.4% of everyday online traffic in North America, which is 1/3 drop from 5 years ago. At the same time, Netflix accounted for over 31% of downstream traffic on fixed networks during “primetime” online hours.

The researchers believe that the decline shouldn’t be interpreted as a decline in the dominance of the service. Sandvine predicts that Netflix will break its own record very soon. YouTube accounts for over 18% of overall Internet traffic, so the two video streaming services held about 50% of North America downstream traffic. In the meantime, Amazon video and Hulu found themselves in the end of the list, each holding 1.6% and 1.3% of all downstream traffic, respectively.

Nevertheless, peer-to-peer services (namely BitTorrent) still dominate upstream traffic, and its share is 36.35%. However, downstream traffic represents a greater percentage of online traffic, because it is sent to the average home or office user, while upstream traffic is sent from a machine or network away from the user.

The results of the research also revealed that YouTube is dominant in South America and accounts for over 36% of traffic over there. As for Netflix, it failed to achieve comparable success in South America and holds just 2.17% of downstream traffic. Apparently, the service is growing in popularity in Europe, where its share is over 20% of traffic – this is less than 2 years after launching in the region. Netflix launched in the United Kingdom and Ireland two years ago and in the Netherlands two months ago.