Crates / libp2p
Rust crate · real downloads · data Oct 27, 2026
libp2p downloads, and should you depend on it?
Peer-to-peer networking library crates.io · docs.rs · repository
alternatives · is it still maintained?
Established and losing ground.
libp2p: 298 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.
How this verdict is decided (4 rules)
- Usage: crates.io reverse dependencies (crates that list it as a dependency): 10,000+ = foundational, 1,000+ = widely used, 100+ = established, under 100 = few direct dependents.
- Direction: the median quiet day in the last 30 days of the window against the first 30, read against the median tracked crate (the whole field moved +39% from late summer to October, so a raw trend says nothing). 10%+ ahead of the field = gaining; 10%+ behind = losing ground; otherwise steady. Steady with no release in 2+ years = quiet for years.
- Release spikes: the median release-window day against the quiet-day baseline: under 1.15x = no spike, 1.15x to 1.3x = small bumps, 1.3x or more = jumps on release days.
- Release recency: days since the newest version that was not yanked, from crates.io publish times.
release window (release day + next day)quiet dayquiet-day median · download the 89 days as CSV
The numbers in one paragraphlibp2p got 2,347,308 crates.io downloads from Jul 30, 2026 to Oct 26, 2026. 4% of them landed within 2 days of one of its 2 releases. On the other 85 quiet days it got a median of 28,346 a day, about 198,422 a week. Capping release days at that baseline leaves 2,340,319 release-adjusted downloads for the window.
What this means if you're choosing a dependency
- Used, not everywhere. 298 crates depend on it. Look at how fast its issues get answered before you lean on it.
- Actively released. 0.57.1 shipped 12 days ago (Oct 15, 2026).
- Still pre-1.0 (0.57.1). Under Cargo's semver rules a 0.x minor bump may break you, so pin the minor version (
libp2p = "0.57") and read the changelog on upgrades. - Fit check: license MIT, edition 2024, needs Rust 1.88.0 or newer (from the latest version's manifest).
- Compare it by the baseline, not the raw count. 4% of its 2,347,308 downloads in the window landed within 2 days of a release; the steady number is 28,346 a day.
Alternatives that do a similar job
Crates that share its crates.io category or keywords, most similar first. Each line is the crate's own description, then how it compares on the same data.
Its place in the dependency graph
libp2p builds on
Tracked crates its latest version (0.57.1) depends on.
What the chart says
- Weekend quiet days ran at 60% of weekday quiet days (18,087 vs 30,105). A dip that deep is the signature of work-week CI pipelines and developers building on weekdays.
- Biggest day: 43,947 on Sep 2, 2026, a quiet day with no release nearby.
Every number
| All-time downloads | 19,834,871 (outside the crates.io top 1,000 by all-time downloads) |
| Downloads in the window | 2,347,308 (Jul 30, 2026 to Oct 26, 2026, 89 days) |
| Within 2 days of a release | 95,819 (4.1%) |
| Quiet-day median (baseline) | 28,346 a day; weekdays 30,105, weekends 18,087 |
| Release-adjusted downloads | 2,340,319 (release-window days capped at the baseline) |
| Baseline rank | #1081 of the 1243 crates we track |
| Quiet-day trend | +13% raw, -19% against the median tracked crate (+39%) |
| Releases in the window | 2 |
| Versions published, ever | 106 |
| Latest version | 0.57.1, published Oct 15, 2026 (license MIT, edition 2024, MSRV 1.88.0) |
| First published | Aug 8, 2018 |
| Reverse dependencies | 298 |
Releases in the window
Each one opens a 2-day release window on the chart.
| Version | Published | Downloads that version got (lifetime) |
|---|---|---|
| 0.57.1 | Oct 15, 2026 | 16,239 |
| 0.57.0 | Sep 11, 2026 | 142,653 |
How we compute this
crates.io counts every download, including CI runners, mirrors and bots that fetch each new version, so raw counts run high (why, in The Manual). We split the last 89 days into release windows (the day a version of libp2p was published, plus the next day) and quiet days, and use the median quiet day as the baseline: an upper bound on steady use, never a head count. The method and data come from our study of 90 days of crates.io data from 69 crates, featured in This Week in Rust #674; check any crate live with the real-downloads checker.
Badge for your README
Maintainers can show the baseline in a README. It is optional, updates when we refresh the data, and links back here. Preview, then copy:
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Categories
Sources
- Daily downloads: crates.io API, /crates/libp2p/downloads (last 90 days, all versions), fetched Oct 27, 2026.
- Versions and publish times: crates.io API, /crates/libp2p/versions, same fetch.
- Reverse dependencies: crates.io reverse dependencies, same fetch. Dependency edges between tracked crates: each crate's default version, crates.io API.
- Fetched politely (one request every 2 seconds, identified User-Agent) per the crates.io data access policy. Data is crates.io's; the release-window split, baseline and verdict rules are ours, CC BY 4.0.
Up next
Next in network programming: Next in Network programming by real downloads: 26,972 a day, 230 dependents. Established and steady.rumqttcRust crate. An efficient and robust mqtt client for your connected devices. Real use: 27K downloads a day on quiet days; 230 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time
Art: Nicholas Roerich, Nag Lake (1925). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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