TOP 10 MOST POPULAR TORRENT SITES OF 2015

Making a list of the world’s most-visited torrent sites has been a long-standing tradition at TF, which we continue today. At the start of 2015 KickassTorrents is pulling in most traffic followed by Torrentz. File-sharing icon The Pirate Bay is currently down, but gets a mention thanks to a popular copy.

Most torrent users rarely change their downloading habits or the places where they get their daily torrent dose.

This is also reflected in our annual top 10 where most torrent sites have had a consistent listing for more than half a decade.

Like every year there are a few movers and shakers though, and the biggest impact was made by the Pirate Bay raid early last month.

The notorious torrent site has been crowned the most popular torrent site since 2008, but isn’t serving any torrents at the beginning of this year. As a result, the top spot is now taken by KickassTorrents.

The Pirate Bay hasn’t gone away completely though. There are currently several popular clones and copies of the site that together can easily match the traffic of most other sites that are listed.

Thanks to one of its top copies TPB managed to secure a spot in 4th place. Considering the situation we decided to mention both the original Pirate Bay domain and the most-used copy.

The rest of the top 10 consists of other familiar names. Bitsnoop.com is the only site to drop from the list, with Limetorrents.cc taking its place.

Demonoid, which returned online earlier this year, just fell out of the top 10 but appears to be making a slow but steady comeback that’s worth mentioning. There is a good chance that it will return again next year.

Below is the full list of the top 10 most-visited torrent sites at the start of the new year. Only public and English language content sites are included. The list is based on various traffic reports and we display the Alexa and U.S. Compete rank for each. In addition, we include last year’s ranking for each of the 10 sites.

People who want to increase their privacy may want to use a anonymous proxy or VPN service.

1. KICKASSTORRENTS

KickassTorrents was founded in 2009 and surpassed The Pirate Bay in traffic this year, even before it went down. Battling various censorship efforts the site has burned through a few different domain names over the years. Most recently it switched to the Somalian Kickass.so address.

ALEXA RANK: 151 / COMPETE RANK: 711 / LAST YEAR #2

2. TORRENTZ

Torrentz has been the leading BitTorrent meta-search engine for many years. Unlike the other sites featured in the list Torrentz does not host any torrent files, it merely redirects visitors to other places on the web. The site uses several domain names with .eu being the most popular.

ALEXA RANK: 206 / COMPETE RANK: 1.716 / LAST YEAR #3

3. EXTRATORRENT

ExtraTorrent continues to gain more traffic and has become one of the most active torrent communities. The site is also the home of the popular ETTV and ETRG release groups.

ALEXA RANK: 356 / COMPETE RANK: 3,446 / LAST YEAR #4

4. THE PIRATE BAY (COPIES AND CLONES)

At the time of writing The Pirate Bay isn’t serving any torrents. However, there are several copies and clones of the site which, at least temporarily, take its place.OldPiratebay.org is currently the most popular and based on its recent traffic the site is already ranked at least 4th in this list.

ALEXA RANK: NA / COMPETE RANK: NA / LAST YEAR #1

5. YTS

YTS, also known as the release group “YIFY,” has become the most recognizable movie piracy brands on the Internet. Despite a court court-ordered ISP blockade in the UK the group’s torrent site continues expand.

ALEXA RANK: 740 / COMPETE RANK: 4,271 / LAST YEAR #5

6. EZTV

TV-torrent distribution group EZTV is a niche site specializing in TV content only. Because of its narrow focus, EZTV’s traffic varies in line with the TV seasons. Despite posting only a few dozen torrents per week it attracts millions of visitors.

ALEXA RANK: 1,262 / COMPETE RANK: 5,421 / LAST YEAR #6

7. RARBG

RARBG, which started out as a Bulgarian tracker, was last year’s newcomer and continues to rake in more visitors. The site was blocked by UK ISPs last month, which put it on par with most other sites in the top 10.

ALEXA RANK: 1,326 / COMPETE RANK: 8,890 / LAST YEAR #10

8. ISOHUNT.TO

Isohunt.to was launched in 2013, less than two weeks after isoHunt.com shut down. The site is not affiliated with the old isoHunt but hopes to keep its spirit alive. The same people are also behind Oldpiratebay.org, which is is listed in 4th place.

ALEXA RANK: 1,890 / COMPETE RANK: 7,723 / LAST YEAR #8

9. 1337X

1337x is a community driven torrent site. The site’s owners say they launched 1337x to “fill an apparent void where it seemed there was a lack of quality conscience ad free torrent sites with public trackers.” This year the site dropped its .org domain and is now operating from 1337x.to.

ALEXA RANK: 2,581 / COMPETE RANK: 11,389 / LAST YEAR #7

10. LIMETORRENTS

Limetorrents.cc has been around for several years already, and regained a spot in the top 10 this year. The site appeared in the news this summer after it was sued by LionsGate for posting a link to a leaked copy of The Expendables 3. The case is still ongoing.

ALEXA RANK: 2,608 / COMPETE RANK: 3,984 / LAST YEAR #NA

Disclaimer: Yes, we know that Alexa isn’t perfect and that Compete has plenty of flaws, but combined both do a pretty good job at comparing sites that operate in a similar niche.

Tagged in: Torrent Sites

The Top Torrent Sites of 2015 - Reader Recommendations

1. orlock: Torlock is special. These folks actually pay their users commission for uncovering fake torrents and reporting it to their community. In a world of phony files, this is a tremendous service. If you are a regular downloader, and are tired of wasted downloads and fraudulent files, give Torlock a try.
    
2. btscene.com: btscene is a longtime player in the file sharing game. This website does have annoying popups and adult advertising, but it does offer a solid library of torrents. It does a good job of featuring very recent torrents (good for people who follow television shows), and presenting many browsing choices at a glance.
    
3. Toorgle.com: Toorgle is a torrent metasearch engine based on Google technology. Like any metasearch service, your searches result from multiple other search engines on the Web. Toorgle retrieves the location of these files for you as a kind of matchmaking service. It's quick to use and can help you find rare or obscure torrents. Just make sure you are careful in which torrent you choose at Toorgle; because Toorgle will show results from dodgy torrent sites, take the time to check that a torrent has positive comments and is verified by users before you download. Careful and experienced users comment that Toorgle can be very helpful, if you know how to pick the good torrents from the bad.
    
4. ExtraTorrent.com: ExtraTorrent.com is very visual and very busy.  But the thumbnails and file information at this site are tremendous. This site is definitely worth trying, as it is very browsing-friendly for discovering movies and music artists.
    
5. KAT.cr: this site is an absolute favorite amongst our readers. Kick Ass has also struggled with authorities clamping down on its operations. Kick Ass has gone through domain names of .to, .so, .im, .ph, and now they are working with a .cr domain name.  This site is definitely worth following as it moves its servers about, though. Kick Ass Torrents offers an excellent comment and feedback system, where the community watches the quality of torrents closely, and offers their recommendations and warnings. The adult advertising can be annoying, but Kick Ass Torrents has an excellent library of files and is run by very attentive administrators.
    
6. Bitport.io:  Bitpot is a newer 3rd party service in the Czech Republic.  They don't give you torrents, but instead will download torrents for you onto their own private servers. Once your large files are transferred to them, you then log on and download the completed file directly to your computer.  The free version allows 100MB per hour transfer.  You can subscribe to get faster transfer speeds.  Bitport is an excellent service, and considering the risks that they incur, the small $5/month fee is an excellent value for the customer.
    
7. Demonoid.ph:  this private membership community has resurrected itself at new domain name Demonoid.ph and Demonoid.pw. Some of you will remember how Demonoid was a very popular and trusted place to get files and stay informed on which torrents to avoid.  Let's see if Demonoid can regain the same eminence at this new server site!
    
8. SeedPeer.me: SeedPeer is a very large database of over 3 million torrent files. The search interface is simple, and the keyword cloud map helps as a discovery means to find interesting movies, tv shows, and music artists. Fans speak very highly of SeedPeer, so do consider trying it out.
    
9. Isohunt.to: Isohunt is reborn!  After being shut down by the MPAA on October 17, 2013, Isohunt has been resurrected with a new domain name in a new country.  Please support this longtime champion of P2P file sharing!
    
10. BitSnoop.com: is the largest known database of torrents today.  With over 18 million indexed files, one could argue that this is the only site you'd need to search at.  Try BitSnoop for yourself and see how it presents its results with its comments and ratings... you might like this site as much as other readers do.
     
11. VCDQ.com: VCDQ.com isn't technically a torrent search site; rather, VCDQ specializes in verifying torrents. VCDQ employs a committee of serious users to confirm that torrents do indeed exist for thousands of titles, especially brand new movie releases. Use VCDQ to confirm that a title is available, then copy the torrent name to paste into a search engine like Isohunt.com. Definitely give VCDQ.com a try; this is a great resource for avoiding fake torrent files.
     
12. TorrentHound: at over 4.7 million torrents, TorrentHound is one of the largest players in the torrent P2P game. The site does enforce good use of 'white space' in the sidebars, so scanning the pages can be easier for most readers. Unfortunately, the comments counts are not included in the initial search results, so you'll have to click into the individual files to see reader comments.
     
13. Boxopus: Boxopus is like bitport.io, a 3rd party cloud downloader.  The service does charge $1.50 to use for a week, or $50 for a year.  If you want to integrate with Dropbox, then you'll need to look elsewhere, as Dropbox has blocked Boxopus torrents. But there are some very convenient features here that some readers really rave about.  The price is actually very reasonable if you plan your downloads so that you can use the week-long access to its maximum.
     
14. Torrent Funk: Torrent Funk is a very popular torrent search site that now supports commenting. While Torrent Funk also supports 'verified status' tagging, which some people prefer to comments. The interface can be difficult to discern between sponsored ads and the actual torrent links. But the Torrent Funk site layout is pleasing, the cross- movie recommendations are very helpful, and several About.com readers highly recommended Torrent Funk. Give this site a try, and watch if it will grow over time.
     
15. Torrents.to: this site has a Tonga country domain name, but certainly offers plentiful metasearching of movies and music in English and Spanish. There are some popup advertisements that are annoying, but perhaps you might like the framed interface for searching other torrent sites.