People would rather watch Netflix and chill than pirate movies illegally

Back in 2008 BitTorrent, a popular peer-to-peer program used to torrent files accounted for 31% of all internet traffic on the internet. Today, that number’s down to 5%. The cause? Netflix.

According to a new report from broadband analytics firm Sandvine, Netflix and other streaming services like YouTube and Amazon now account for over 40% of all internet traffic, eclipsing BitTorrent entirety.

“Streaming Video has grown at such a rapid pace in North America that the leading service in 2015, Netflix, now has a greater share of traffic than all of streaming audio and video did five years ago,” Sandvine CEO Dave Caputo explained. “[I]t further underscores both the growing role these streaming services play in the lives of subscribers and the need for service providers to have solutions to help deliver a quality experience when using them.”

Sandvine’s findings confirm what many cord-cutting advocates have been saying for a number of years now: most regular people would much rather pay a nominal premium for on-demand content rather than going through the hassle of downloading P2P clients, hunting down torrents, and praying that they aren’t accidentally downloading viruses (or, you know, illegal).

Netflix, for its part, seems to be more than game to keep this trend going. This year, the network released 16 original new shows, like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Master of None, all to critical acclaim. Next year, says Netflix chief of content Ted Sarandos, the company plans to double that number.

“It’s not just a lot of volume,” Sarandos said in a press release. “This is quality stuff.”