Lifecycle and Survival Rate of Torrent Trackers

This paper studies the evolution of 258 torrent trackers to determine factors that affect their development and survival. The analysis is based on a comparison of the current state of the network with data from 2010-2011. Methods of statistical data collection that allowed the comparison are presented. Gathered data describes the current state of the trackers and the whole network. Ten years old data was taken from then-published articles. The analysis leads to a mathematical description of the lifecycle. Some factors that impact the survival rate of the trackers include participant numbers, types, and target audience of the distributed content, the origin of the tracker, and attempts to block the tracker by the governments. Those and other factors have been studied and accounted for. Content-type and origin are important in tracker survival, larger trackers are more likely to grow than smaller ones and government block have a negligible impact.