File sharers offering illegal content have been driven from the popular BitTorrent P2P network by recent crackdowns but have simply moved to eDonkey, newly published research has claimed.

According to web analysis conducted by UK P2P traffic management firm CacheLogic, eDonkey has recently overtaken BitTorrent to become the world's largest P2P file trading network.

While BitTorrent remains extremely popular in Asia, with the notable exception of South Korea where eDonkey accounts for 92 per cent of all P2P traffic, the data shows that European, North American and Latin American users have shifted to eDonkey for the vast majority of file trading.

"CacheLogic has noted a significant shift in the balance of traffic levels associated with the main P2P protocols through our unique access to actual web traffic data throughout the world," said Andrew Parker, chief technology officer at CacheLogic.

"Over the past six months, the traffic levels for the eDonkey protocol have grown to a level greater than that of BitTorrent. Such file-sharing applications continue to be the single largest traffic burden on ISP networks."

The data for this study was obtained through CacheLogic's Streamsight Analysis Network Programme, which analyses actual packet data and traffic levels obtained from global ISPs.

The full P2P web analysis can be seen here.