One of the most famous torrent trackers in the world has closed down

RARBG, one of the world’s largest torrent sites, has ceased operations. The reasons for this decision are the consequences of the COVID pandemic, financial difficulties, and the Russian-Ukrainian war in which team members are involved.

The RARBG torrent website was founded in 2008. In a short period of time, the resource has become a key player in the torrent ecosystem. Not only did it attract millions of visitors from all over the world every month, but it was also a major hub for releases. In a message posted on the site’s homepage, the team bids farewell to users. The closure of the site has also been confirmed by independent sources.

«The last two years have been very difficult for us — some [учасники команди] have died due to complications related to the coronavirus, others are still suffering from its side effects. Some are also fighting in Europe — ON BOTH SIDES,» said a representative of the RARBG team.

Rising data center costs in Europe have also played a role. «Inflation makes our daily costs of maintaining the site impossible. After a unanimous vote, we decided that we could not cover this from our own pockets. We apologize for this. Goodbye, » the message reads.

RARBG’s shutdown is one of the largest in the history of torrent sites. It is also the first major shutdown since 2015−2016, when KickassTorrents, Torrentz and ExtraTorrent left the pirate content distribution scene.

In April, Dynamic Television acquired the rights to The Pirate Bay, a Swedish series that will tell the story of the creation of the world’s largest BitTorrent indexer and torrent search catalog, as well as its co-founders. The series will consist of six episodes, directed by Jens Schegren and written by Petro Martsyniak. Filming will start in the fall and will be produced by the Swedish television company SVT.