At the end of every year, we take a look at the most-downloaded TV-episodes among torrenting pirates.

For several years in a row the list was headed by Game of Thrones but, just like the series itself, this reign has now come to an end.

With the title up for grabs, there were several contenders for the crown. “The Mandalorian” eventually came out as the winner. The popular Disney+ exclusive was previously the third most downloaded TV-series in 2019.

The competition for the top spot was fierce with three titles standing out among the rest. Prime Video’s “The Boys” eventually settled for second place, one spot higher than HBO’s “Westworld.”

The top three nicely shows how fragmented the online entertainment industry has become. In order to watch all three series, one needs three separate subscriptions. That’s a cost not everyone may be able to afford, which can explain part of the piracy problem.

That said, the three TV-shows are first and foremost in this list because they are popular in general and especially with the online audience. That is true both on legal and illegal platforms.

Apart from the changes at the top, it’s notable that there are several newcomers on the list, including “Star Trek: Picard” and “Outsider,” which both premiered in 2020.

It’s worth noting that BitTorrent traffic only makes up a small portion of the piracy landscape. A lot of people use streaming sites and services nowadays, which generally do not report viewing stats.

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Below we have compiled a list of the most torrented TV-shows worldwide (single episode). The ranking is based on several sources, including statistics reported by public BitTorrent trackers. Full season downloads are not included.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. We have some good VPN deals here for the holidays.

The Pirate Bay’s main .org domain has been unreachable for nearly a day now.

For most people, the site currently displays a CloudFlare error message across the entire site, with the CDN provider mentioning that a “gateway timeout” is causing the issue.

As usual, no further details are available to us and there is no known ETA for the site’s full return. However, judging from past experience, it’s likely a small technical issue that needs fixing.

The Pirate Bay has had quite a few stints of downtime over the years. The popular torrent site usually returns after several hours, but outages of more than a day have occurred as well.

Despite the downtime, there are still some options left for people to access the notorious torrent site.

TPB is still available via its .onion address on the Tor network, accessible using the popular Tor Browser, for example. The site’s Tor traffic goes through a separate server and works just fine. Several dedicated TPB proxies are still up as well.

The Pirate Bay team has a status page in the forums where people can check to see if an outage is affecting everyone or not. This also shows that the Tor version of the site is working fine, and that new torrents are still coming through.

The main .org domain will probably be back in action soon enough, although there are no guarantees. Torrentz2 , for example, disappeared a few weeks ago and still hasn’t returned. The .onion domain remains active but that hasn’t been updated with new content in nearly a week.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

In recent months Denmark has lost two of its most popular pirate sites following police investigations.

Both Danishbit and Nordicbits went offline after the alleged operators were caught . This was a big hit to Danish torrent users, who generally prefer private torrent trackers over public indexers such as The Pirate Bay.

As is often the case with shutdowns, other sites have stepped in to take up the slack. For example, following the closure of Danishbits, both ShareUniversity and Asgaard opened their doors to members who were looking for a new home.

While the people running these sites were initially thrilled, their perspective changed last week when police confirmed their involvement and the arrest of the Danishbits operator. Making matters worse, law enforcement didn’t rule out that users could be identified as well.

Meanwhile, anti-piracy group Rights Alliance increased the pressure on the remaining trackers. The group informed TorrentFreak that they are aware of the growth of these sites and urged them to give up their illegal activities. If not, they would get the same treatment as DanishBits and NordicBits.

This warning wasn’t in vain. Over the past week, the staff of Asgaard considered their options and ultimately decided to throw in the towel.

“We are in a situation where our cozy project has suddenly developed into a LARGE Nordic company. With that in mind, it also made us realize that several of the driving forces behind the site have to take a serious look at their involvement with the project,” staff wrote this week.

The warning from Rights Alliance played an important role in the site’s decision. That, combined with a potential for criminal prosecution of the people involved, proved to be too much pressure.

“The top of the volcano erupts, as the Rights Alliance very descriptively says that they already have an eye on ASGAARD ​​and can see the traffic that has been coming in. In addition, there is the scare campaign about the treatment that awaits us if we choose to continue the project.”

Instead of looking over their shoulders for the years to come, sacrificing sleep and potentially their futures, shutting down is seen as the best option.

“The thought of having to risk the doorbell ringing one day for a visit from the police overshadows the coziness of running this project. We will not expose you to that. Or ourselves. We have therefore chosen to close the ASGAARD project,” Asgaard’s staff concludes.

At the time of writing the site is still online but it will effectively close on December 31. While others may be interested in taking over the site, the Asgaard team prefers a hard stop and will let the domain name go as well.

The tracker operators, who relied on user donations, thank all members for their support and understanding and say they will refund all members who contributed to the site after December 2.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Private BitTorrent trackers are niche sites in most parts of the world but in Denmark they are huge.

With millions of views per month, sites such as ShareUniversity and Asgrd are among the most popular sites in the country.

This was also the case with DanishBits until it suddenly went offline a few weeks ago. At the time, several sources informed us that the owner was arrested and, this week, official confirmation came in that this is indeed the case.

Danishbits Operator Arrested

Denmark’s State Prosecutor for Serious Economic Crime (SØIK) announced that a 33-year-old Danish man was arrested in Morocco. This followed an investigation by the authorities, which acted based on a complaint from local piracy group Rights Alliance.

The Danishbits investigation, which started in 2016, revealed that the site was run professionally and that the people involved did their best to hide their identities. Payments, for example, were made through cryptocurrency.

Despite these efforts, law enforcement officials managed to identify the operator, who was subsequently placed on Interpol’s wanted list. In October, the alleged ringleader of the site was eventually apprehended and jailed in Morocco, from where he will possibly be extradited to Denmark.

“It’s very satisfying that the investigation led to both the arrest of the suspected operator and shutting down the network. It succeeded thanks to the sustained collaboration between our specialized investigators, prosecutors, and IT experts,” says Deputy Police Inspector Michael Lichtenstein.

Nordicbits Shut Down, Operator Passed Away

Danishbits was not the only private tracker to disappear this fall. The same happened to Nordicbits. This site, which was smaller than its competitor, was also reported to the authorities by Rights Alliance in 2018.

After a detailed investigation, the authorities identified a 69-year-old Danish man as the operator. The man, who resided in Spain, was apprehended by local police in September.

After being questioned the Nordicbits operator admitted his involvement in the site and agreed to shut it down voluntarily. The Danish prosecution intended to take the operator to court. However, the man was seriously ill and recently passed away.

Targeting Users?

In both cases, law enforcement officials managed to seize data which will be used for further investigation. Deputy Police Inspector Michael Lichtenstein doesn’t rule out that users will be identified as well.

“The most important thing is clearly to stop the illegal services, but it can certainly not be ruled out that seized data can lead to the identification of the users of the two illegal networks,” he says.

Despite this warning, private torrent trackers continue to flourish in Denmark. The two sites that were shut down had roughly 45,000 registered users, many of whom went to other Danish trackers.

Rights Alliance says that the users of these sites know all too well that they are breaking the law. The anti-piracy group is also happy that the authorities will consider follow-up steps.

“We are pleased that the announcement of the State Prosecutor for Serious Economic Crime also reflects the importance of an increased focus on users’ illegal behavior,” Right Alliance CEO Maria Fredenslund says .

Thus far, however, these users don’t seem to be particularly bothered. After the shutdowns ShareUniversity saw a 500% increase in visits , and Asgrd’s traffic jumped up by more than 750% .

Right Alliance informs TorrentFreak that they are aware of the growth of these sites and urges them to give up their illegal activities. If not, they will get the same treatment as DanishBits and NordicBits.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Back in 2016, police in New Zealand received information from the Inland Revenue Service in the United States that a movie piracy website was being operated by a local man.

According to the IRS, the man and his associates were using online international money transfer services to send remittances between the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Vietnam. What followed was a three-year investigation and a raid on the man in 2019.

Police Raid Alleged Movie Pirate’s Home, Seize Crypto Haul

In June 2019, police swooped on software programmer Jaron David McIvor, making two visits to his home in New Zealand. The then-31-year-old reportedly lived in a modest rental property with no obvious wealth or expensive assets such as luxury vehicles.

Several months later in November 2019, it was revealed that McIvor had cooperated with police, handing over the keys to access $6.2m in cryptocurrencies and NZ$6.2m (US$4.4m) and NZ$800,000 (US$568,320) in banked funds. The assets were seized under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act.

Later that month, police seized a further NZ472,000 (US$335,308) in cryptocurrency and NZ377,000 (US$267,820) in cash from a McIvor ‘associate’, later revealed to be his brother.

At the time, Detective Senior Sergeant Keith Kay, head of the Asset Recovery Unit in Waikato, said McIvor had helped to create a movie piracy site (which has still not been named) from which he received significant funds.

The site allegedly operated in the United States and when funds were deposited into various bank accounts via wire transfers, Stripe, and PayPal, a money-laundering investigation was launched. After “suspicious activity” was discovered on an account linked to McIvor, the raids and seizures took place.

Court Orders Seizure of Cash and Cryptocurrency

In a brief judgment handed down by the New Zealand High Court this morning, it is noted the McIvor was investigated for his role in the movie piracy scheme and as a result, significant funds would be forfeited to the state after he admitted profiting from copyright infringement.

According to the Court, the Commission of Police ultimately restrained funds in McIvor’s bank account totaling NZ$818,000 (US$581,066) and cryptocurrencies now worth an eye-watering NZ$21 million (US$14.9m). Additional funds “found their way” into his brother’s account too – almost NZ$386,000 (US$274,195) and cryptocurrency now worth NZ$1.77 million (US$1.25 million)

“The brothers recently agreed to forfeiture of all crypto-currencies and all but $400,000 (US$284,140). I approved their agreement with the Commissioner on 16 November 2020,” the judge wrote.

“I was satisfied this outcome was consistent with the purposes of the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009, and the overall interests of justice. I reached this conclusion because the overwhelming majority of restrained funds were forfeited, and litigation over the balance (of $NZ400,000) would be disproportionately expensive and time consuming.

“In short, I considered settlement met the public interest,” he concluded.

Movie Piracy Site Still Not Named

The High Court judgment makes no mention of any further legal action against McIvor and mentions no ongoing investigations or court cases in respect of his copyright-infringing activities. Neither does it mention the name of the site, which seems a little unusual given the apparent scale of the operation.

However, there are some similarities with a case in the United States, also based in movie piracy and involving large volumes of cryptocurrency. Just a month before the crypto seizures in New Zealand, United States authorities confirmed that they had seized around US$4 million worth of cash and cryptocurrency as part of an investigation into alleged movie piracy.

That investigation ended last November with a guilty plea from Oregon resident Talon White and the forfeiture of $3.9 million seized from his bank accounts, $35,000 in cash, cryptocurrency worth around $424,000, plus his home in Oregon, then valued at $415,000. On top, White was ordered to pay $669,557 in restitution to the MPAA and $3,392,708 in restitution to the IRS.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Without prior warning, Torrentz2 suddenly started to return a ‘ 503 Service Unavailable ‘ error two weeks ago.

From one day to the next millions of regular visitors were left in the cold, effectively disconnected from their gateway to dozens of torrent sites.

Torrentz2 Troubles Continue

After more than two weeks have passed, the situation hasn’t changed. The same error is still present on the side and official mirrors, including Torrentz.pl and Torrentsmirror.com have the same problem.

Since our coverage, we have reached out to the operator multiple times, without any response. This is quite unusual, especially since the emails are being delivered just fine.

This isn’t the first problem Torrentz2 has encountered this year. In June, the official Torrentz2.eu domain name was suspended by the EURid registry, an action that was taken following an order from the Belgian Public Prosecutor in Brussels.

In response, Torrentz2 quickly moved to the .is domain name. The current problems, which are technical in nature, don’t seem to be going away easily.

Torrentz2 .Onion Site Works

Adding to the mystery, we found out that the official onion domain still gives access to the full site. Not just that, the site’s backend is working too as the search engine continues to be updated with fresh links.

The domain ‘torrentzwealmisr.onion’ wasn’t promoted on the Torrentz2 site over the past months but during the years before it was prominently listed on the site’s footer. So it’s certainly not a copycat.

Through the .onion address people can still access Torrentz2 over the anonymous Tor-network , with the Tor browser for example. In addition, it’s possible to access it through regular browsers by adding .ly to the .onion domain.

Good News?

Avid Torrentz2 users may welcome this news but it’s unknown whether this is really positive.

There is clearly something ‘broken’ at the main site. In addition, the lack of communication and action from the operator is troubling. Yes, the onion domain works, but for how long?

The problems at Torrentz2 are not just affecting the site’s operator and users, third-party torrent sites are also feeling it too. Some smaller torrent sites received a lot of traffic from the meta-search engine. That traffic is now missing.

For now, it appears that the uncertainty around Torrentz2’s future will continue. We will keep an eye on the situation and if there’s any news we’ll report on it in due course.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

After years of hype, rumor, speculation and excitement, everyone knew the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 would be something special.

As soon as the game went live on various legal distribution platforms this morning, gamers were activating their pre-installs and making new purchases on a scale rarely seen in the video game space.

According to stats available from Steam, at one point this morning 1,003,264 players were roaming Night City. For comparison, the massively popular Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has an all-time peak of 1.3m, and that’s been around for eight years.

Of course, not everyone is lining the pockets of developer CD Projekt Red

Pirates Were Very Quick Off The Mark

Around 18:00 GMT last night, a good six hours before the game was released in the West, news began to circulate that a functioning pirate release may have already appeared online.

For several days now people have been uploading preload copies of the game to the Internet but none were viable without additional code. However, those necessary additions, which were quickly shared using file-hosting accounts and GDrive, were being passed around freely last evening, enabling people to play the game.

Infamous Repacker FitGirl Advises Against Early Downloads

In a Reddit thread where the release was vigorously discussed, infamous game repacker stepped in with some interesting tips which advised gamers not to bother downloading this early version.

The problem related to the extremely large patches being pumped out by Cyberpunk’s developers to fix various problems. The version that initially appeared online did not have these patches so anyone attempting to play would have a buggy version.

“My advice – don’t play dumb, you’ve waited years, you can wait for a few more hours and get a proper final game, not some pre-release,” FitGirl wrote.

Nevertheless, many reports suggested that some pirates just couldn’t wait, instead opting for a massive download in order to get into the action as quickly as possible. In the event, waiting a few hours would’ve been a better option.

CODEX Releases Improved Version, Download Frenzy Ensues

For those with the patience to wait another eight hours, a 55GB version by release group CODEX addressed the earlier issues by including the Day 1 patch, with the language packs (weighing in at 45GB) provided as an optional extra.

Even before release, the consensus was that not only would Cyberpunk 2077 be one of the highest-selling games ever, but also one of the most pirated. Early signs suggest it is well on track in both departments.

At the time of writing, a conservative estimate from public trackers alone indicates that around 100,000K people are downloading the CODEX release. Given that private trackers will have their own substantial audiences and that games are often shared through file-hosting platforms, there are likely to be tens of thousands more to be added to this rising total.

FitGirl Repack Likely To Provide Another Boost

As mentioned earlier, the size of the CODEX release represents a substantial download prospect for anyone and given the number of people trying to grab various torrents, it will take a while for those swarms to gain maximum efficiency. In short, most people are in for a long wait until those downloads complete.

What FitGirl does, as our recent interview highlighted, is make pirated game releases substantially smaller with sophisticated compression techniques.

While it is yet to be released, FitGirl is already predicting a 35GB download, a massive saving over the current offerings. But these things take time and there’s currently no indication of when the compressed version will appear online. It’s unlikely to be a long wait, however.

Meanwhile, developer CD Projekt Red is working with several anti-piracy partners to make these downloads harder to find.

Developer Sends Wave After Wave of DMCA Notices

Four days ago, DMCA notices began being filed by CD Projekt, initially to take down gameplay footage that had been leaked online. This notice , obtained by TorrentFreak from the Lumen Database, asked Vimeo to remove a video of the Xbox One S gameplay.

Soon after, however, notices began to flood in to remove pre-load files and anything else that looked like them. The image below shows just a small sample of the notices.

This appears to be an ongoing effort, largely to prevent users from finding useful download links via Google. However, it’s likely that the delisting program is being actioned behind the scenes too, in an effort to hinder platforms offering links to the much sought after game.

Such Popularity is Rarely Seen in Videogames

While the majority of games appear online eventually, the lack of obtrusive copy protection measures in Cyberpunk 2077 means that anyone who wishes to grab a copy for free can do so, with limited drawbacks – if time, bandwidth and malware-infested fakes are discounted, of course.

Nevertheless, the huge numbers of players on Steam alone suggest that this game is going to be a huge commercial success, which adds significant weight to the theory that good games will sell like hotcakes, despite piracy and despite the lack of DRM.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

With millions of regular visitors, Torrentz2 is without a doubt the most popular torrent meta-search engine on the Internet.

Update December 4: Torrentz2.is remains down after a week. The 503 error is still the only thing that’s showing up. We repeatedly reached out to the operator without any response. This suggests that there may be more going on than a DDoS attack. When we know more we will write a new article. All proxies, mirrors, or alternatives that are online are unofficial.

The site took this spot from the original Torrentz site, which shut down unexpectedly during the summer of 2016.

Since then, not much has changed. The site has continued to operate quietly like its predecessor by indexing and linking to dozens of millions of links on external torrent sites.

Torrentz2’s Domain Issues

Earlier this year the site suffered a major setback. In June, the official Torrentz2.eu domain name was suspended by the EURid registry, an action that was taken following an order from the Belgian Public Prosecutor in Brussels .

Torrentz2 swiftly responded and moved to Torrentz2.is, while adding several backup domains such as Torrentz.pl and Torrentsmirror.com. While these domains still work fine, they also show the same error.

503 Service Unavailable

For more than a day, Torrentz2 has been returning a “503 Service Unavailable” error, as shown in the screenshot below.

“503 Service Unavailable” is an HTTP status code that typically indicates that the server of a website is overloaded. This is often a temporary issue but, in this case, it’s taking unusually long.

TorrentFreak reached out to the operator of Torrentz2 to ask whether the problem will be resolved in the near future, but we have yet to hear back.

Without an official comment, we can only speculate as to the reason for the ‘downtime’. It seems likely, however, that it is of a technical nature. That could include DDoS attacks, which are not uncommon for torrent sites.

Torrentz2 uses Cloudflare, which generally protects servers from DDoS attacks. However, if attackers know the origin IP-address, they can bypass that protection layer.

There doesn’t appear to be a connection to the domain issues from earlier this year, which appeared to be linked to Hollywood. Torrentz2’s main .is domain, which is managed by Iceland’s ISNIC registry, is functioning properly.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

There has never been any shortage of Spanish-focused piracy sites. Many sprang up in the eDonkey days but the rise of torrent sites was perhaps most notable, with local law struggling to have much impact on their use.

Of course, streaming is now the ‘new’ big thing in Spain as it is elsewhere, with sites like Movidy.co attracting large volumes of traffic. But for this movie and TV show streaming platform the show is now over after its operator received some devastating news.

Movidy’s Operator Was Diagnosed With Cancer

Back in the summer, with Movidy pulling in around eight million visits per month, operator ‘Gabriela Algara’ went public with some awful news. Writing on Twitter, he told users that a month earlier he had been diagnosed with cancer.

Stating that he would be unable to continue with the site due to his health, Gabriela Algara revealed his intent to find a new owner and shut down the site on December 31. He set a price of $20,000 to encourage a quick sale. All money, he explained, would be donated to non-profit groups with any buyer set to recoup their money in around five months.

Health Deteriorating, No Suitable Buyer Found

In a sad notice published during the past few hours, Movidy’s operator explained that his situation coupled with the inability to find a suitable buyer for the site had resulted in the site being shut down with immediate effect.

“About 4 months ago I was diagnosed with cancer, after an operation without so much success and the one that literally ruined my life by plunging me into a debt that I will not be able to return even in 50 years.

“Because they deny me treatments due to said debt, I am forced not to continue with the project anymore. Every day I feel weaker and powerless, in fact this morning I woke up in a pool of blood after getting dizzy and hitting my nose against the table,” he wrote in a statement.

While users of the site were saddened by the news, some hoped that Movidy could continue under new ownership but that, its operator explained, is not a realistic proposition.

Potential Buyers Don’t Understand the Risks

“I thought of selling it and passing it on to someone so that they can manage it but of all those who have contacted me, none understand the risk involved in maintaining a website like Movidy, such as being convicted of piracy or evasion of taxes,” he wrote.

It appears that Movidy has been under pressure. While its owner says that he took the necessary precautions to avoid detection, he revealed that during the last month alone, he had received DMCA notices on a daily basis, filed through his server operator, domain registrar and even Cloudflare.

“[A]ll of them provided information about me without question, but they will not find anything since I have always been protected. This is one of the reasons why I prefer to close [Movidy] rather than to pass it to someone who is careless and could ruin their life,” he explained.

Indeed, Google’s Transparency report reveals recent and intense interest from companies like Disney, Netflix, Apple, Warner Bros., Sony, and NBCUniversal, all attempting to have large volumes of content de-indexed via DMCA notice.

Movidy almost doubled its traffic in the past few months, which may have contributed to the increased attention.

Saying Goodbye

“I created Movidy with the sole purpose of providing humble people with a way of being able to see content that they could possibly never had the pleasure of viewing in their life,” Gabriela Algara’s goodbye reads.

“With my programming skills it was very easy for me to create and design a platform that was at the same level of large corporations, without invasive or excessive advertising, without viruses, without disgusting pornographic images, that is, something to teach young children to use without fear of anything.

“But unfortunately like all things, they have a beginning and an end and this, my friends, is the end of Movidy.”

If the planned schedule has been maintained, at the time of writing all Movidy content, videos, links, and user accounts have been deleted. This means that a true reincarnation of Movidy, which is currently one of the top 130 sites in Spain, period, will be impossible.

“I write this statement with tears in my eyes, we have gone through a lot to get to where we are now only to see it fall in a matter of minutes. I am very proud of each and every one of you, thank you very much for being there supporting me, I hope to see you in future, either in this life or in the next,” he concludes .

Less Favorable Climate For Pirates Site in Spain

The closure of Movidy follows on the heels of the demise of another Spanish giant back in September. Megadede, an extremely popular streaming portal that was one of the country’s top 100 sites, gave no reason for pulling down the shutters, but legal pressure remains a possibility.

Back in the summer, Spanish police shut down an IPTV service with an estimated two million subscribers. That followed raids in April during which seven individuals were arrested as part of a similar operation.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.