We're not sure how it ranks on other planets, but it's certainly a serious contender for that title.There are two flavours: the stripped-back Vuze Leap, and the fully fledged Vuze Plus.Below is the full list of the ten most-visited torrent sites at the start of the new year.The list is based on various traffic reports and we display the Alexa rank for each. The Pirate Bay is the “king of torrents” once again and also the oldest site in this list.Torrent files are incredibly useful, but to use them, you need the right software. Torrents have a bad reputation due to piracy, but they aren't illegal in themselves and have lots of legitimate uses, including downloading open source software and material that's in the public domain. Provided the copyright holder has given permission for the file to be shared this way it's fine, but using torrents to download content you'd otherwise have to pay for is illegal.q Bittorrent sits right in the middle, aiming to "meet the needs of most users while using as little CPU and memory as possible".

That's because it's extendable via plug-ins, which effectively enable you to build your own personalised version of Deluge.

Which torrent sites are the most popular this year?

As we continue a long-standing tradition, we see that The Pirate Bay comes out as the king of torrents once again.

Since several torrent sites have shut down in recent months, this year's top list also reveals some newcomers. With the shutdown of Kickass Torrents and Torrentz.eu, two of the largest players in the scene disappeared.

However, their places were quickly filled by established sites and a few new faces.