Here are all the major torrent sites that have been shut down in the last 14+ years.
These are the major torrent sites that have been shut down since 2004.
While torrenting is as popular as ever, the BitTorrent road is littered with the corpses of shut down torrent sites, whether they were directly seized by authorities or the owners simply saw the writing on the wall and got out before it was too late.
Below is a list of all the fallen torrent sites. If you came across this page looking for an active torrent search site, look no further than our list of Best Torrent Search Sites to Find Torrents.
'Torrent Sites that have been Shut Down' Contents (select to expand)
But First: A Note on Mirrors, Imposters, and Fakes
Despite being shut down, many of the sites listed below still exist in some form or fashion. Some are just trying to cash in on the name and reputation of the original site. Some may be law enforcement operating a honeypot. And a few, like Popcorn Time, are operating with the original owners’ blessing.
It’s a good idea to exercise caution when using any torrent site that was officially shut down and then popped back up.
And we always recommend you use a trusted VPN for torrenting, like PIA VPN. It'll keep your identity and data safe, even when visiting and downloading from the sketchiest of torrent sites. And it's very affordable too.
Shut Down Torrent Sites
Here's the torrent site graveyard listed in chronological order (the oldest shut down sites are listed first). R.I.P..
Suprnova – 2004
One of the first big BitTorrent sites to rise was also the first to fall, when it closed down on December 19, 2004 amid growing legal pressure, barely two years after it was founded.
LokiTorrent – 2005
Another early BitTorrent site, LokiTorrent, benefited from the shutdown of Suprnova, but it’s reign was even shorter. LokiTorrent went offline on February 10th, 2005, less than a year after it was founded.
Oink’s Pink Palace – 2007
Oink’s Pink Palace lasted a little longer than its predecessors, possibly due to its invitation-only membership. But the site’s three-year run came screeching to a halt on October 23, 2007, at the hands of British and Dutch authorities. The owner was eventually found ‘not guilty’ on all charges.
TorrentSpy – 2008
In an effort to slow the growth of torrent sites, authorities first tried to flip TorrentSpy in 2007, ordering them to record who used the site. The owners didn’t cooperate and shut down the site on March 24, 2008 – and were served with a $110 million judgment just months later.
Mininova – 2009
Mininova received a huge spike in traffic after the fall of TorrentSpy, but it was soon dead in the water after the court ordered the site to remove all torrents on March 26, 2009.
BTJunkie – 2012
Another torrent site was lost on February 6th, 2012, when BTJunkie voluntary closed its doors. It was a top 5 torrent site at the time.
isoHunt – 2013
In October 2013, isoHunt’s owner Gary Fung was hit with a devastating court ruling, which forced him to shut down the site – and held him liable for $110 million in damages. isoHunt went offline on October 21st.
Popcorn Time – 2014
Popcorn Time is a little different than other entries on the list, in that it let users stream torrents rather than download them. The original owners took the program offline on March 14th, 2014. Other users forked the code and brought it back online as popcorntime.io, which was shut down by the MPAA in October 2015. But other forks are still online.
EZTV – 2015
After a ten-year run, EZTV’s owner step aside not because of legal pressure, but because hackers had managed to take control of his domains and servers. He officially called it quits on April 29, 2015.
YIFY Torrents – 2015
The torrenting group known as YIFY originally made their name uploading movies to other torrenting sites, but eventually created their own. The government managed to take them offline on October 20, 2015.
KickassTorrents – 2016
KAT was the biggest BitTorrent site on the internet when it was seized by the US government on July 20, 2016 and its owner, Artem Vaulin, arrested.
Torrentz – 2016
Not wanting to suffer the same fate as KAT, the owner of the popular Torrentz.eu meta-search engine closed his site on August 5, 2016, when it was still the second-biggest torrent site.
TorrentHound – 2016
The next month, TorrentHound’s owner followed suit, abruptly taking the site offline on September 5, 2016.
What.CD – 2016
Another invitation-only torrent site, What.CD, was founded within days of the death of Oink’s Pink Palace in 2007. And it lasted much longer, at one point breaking a record with one million files on a private tracker. What.CD eventually succumbed to French authorities on November 17, 2016.
TorrentButler.eu - 2017
At the very start of 2017, beloved torrent site torrentbutler.eu went offline never to return.
NYAA.se Torrents - 2017
This major anime torrenting site went offline for good in early May 2017 when the site's moderators voluntarily deactivated their .se, .eu and .org domain names. But it continues to operate at the domain Nyaa.si.
Read our article on the Best Anime Torrent Sites to learn more.
ExtraTorrents – 2017
The latest casualty in the war on BitTorrent sites was ExtraTorrents, which closed up shop voluntarily on May 17, 2017.
Pixelados/HD-Spain/HDCity - 2023
The two private Spanish trackers, HD-Spain and HDCity, decided to combine their efforts by merging into a single, new tracker: Pixelados. But their union was short living, as they were shut down in early 2023.
The Pirate Bay – ?
The Pirate Bay has been raided on multiple occasions, starting as early as May 2006. Its founders have served short prison sentences. And the site itself has been taken down who knows how many times. But the TPB is still standing, as of today.
The Future of Torrent Sites
From what we've seen, the closure of major torrent sites seems to have slowed in recent years. Instead, there's been a focus on streaming sites, along with blocking domains in search engines or through internet service providers.
But that doesn't mean your favorite torrent site will last forever. In the meantime, make sure to always use a reliable torrenting VPN, like PIA VPN, since these sites and their users remain under heavy scrutiny.
Are there any torrent site shutdowns that we missed? Let us know in the comments!