ExtraTorrent, the world’s second most popular torrent site, has permanently shut down. After the demise of KickassTorrents and Torrentz.eu, the torrent community now has to say goodbye to this major player. The abrupt decision was announced on Wednesday in a brief message posted on the site’s homepage, saying “farewell” to its millions of users.
The ShutDown Message Reads:
“ExtraTorrent has shut down permanently”
“ExtraTorrent with all mirrors goes offline. We permanently erase all data. Stay away from fake ExtraTorrent websites and clones. Thx to all ET supporters and torrent community. ET was a place to be….”
The message does not mention the reason of shutdown of the torrent site but indicates that the popular torrent index will not return.
The site, which launched in November 2006, had steadily climbed the ranks in the piracy world to become the second most popular torrent site after ‘The Pirate Bay’, observing millions of daily views and a particularly active community.
It’s unclear whether legal pressure had anything to do with the decision to shut down, but that wouldn’t come as a surprise to the entertainment industry and the hosting authorities have been in constant crosshairs with the piracy sites.
ExtraTorrent is the latest in a series of BitTorrent giants to fall in recent months. Previously, sites including KickassTorrents, Torrentz.eu, TorrentHound, and What.cd went offline. Hence, the future looks bleak for Torrent and movie streaming websites.
TorrentFreak reached out to ExtraTorrent operator SaM who confirmed that this is indeed the end of the line for them. “It’s time we say goodbye,” he said, without providing more details about the reason for its closure. SaM also confirmed that ExtraTorrent’s release group ETRG is also gone now, but Ettv and Ethd could remain operational “if they get enough donations to sustain the expenses.”
