Nearly 32% of download traffic during peak hours in the North America belongs to Netflix, with YouTube grabbing just under 19%. This means that, when combined, these two web video apps account for just over half of all download traffic during peak traffic hours.
The data comes via the Global Internet Phenomena Report, updated twice a year to map out network usage habits.
Netflix's usage share actually fell compared to a year ago, when it was at 33%. However, the dominance of Netflix is still plain to see by the fact that its closest direct competitor, Amazon Video, only managed to account for 1.61% of download traffic - some 19 times less. Hulu was even less popular, at only 1.29%.
Not only is Netflix dominating its competitors, it is also dominating piracy. BitTorrent traffic, only some of which belongs to pirated downloads, only accounted for 4.05% of peak download traffic. BitTorrent traffic fell compared to last year, when it was at 5.9%. It did account for more than 36% of upload traffic, easily beating all other usage types, including Skype and Facetime.
When combining both uploads and downloads, BitTorrent traffic was at 7.39%, the first time it has fallen under 10%, and down from the high of 60% eleven years ago.
With Netflix now introducing the higher data using Super HD streams to all North American subscribers, its bandwidth share may rise again when the report is next updated, the report predicted.
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