Extratorrent, YTS aka YIFY.ag, and RARBG top 3 alternatives torrent sites. (Photo : Getty Images/ Adam Berry)

The latest data has confirmed torrent-user migration to alternative pirate sites. This is attributed to the unexpected shutdown of two of the top three most-visited torrent sites in the world, KickassTorrents (KAT) and Torrentz.eu.



The Pirate Bay (TPB) and Extra Torrent are the biggest beneficiaries of the shutdown. However, other sites including RarBG, 1337x.to, and YTS.ag have also made a huge gain in traffic in the wake of KAT and Torrentz.eu disappearance.




The torrent community was shocked back in July when KAT, which by then, was the most popular website, was brought down on the United States government orders. The move left millions of torrent users clamoring for other alternatives.



After KAT was shut down and its alleged owner arrested, the world's largest meta search engine Torrentz.eu became the most popular substitute. However, the site shut down voluntarily, apparently due to the owner's concern that it would be the next target.



Torrent users were left in the lurch with two of the three largest sites of their kind unexpectedly becoming inaccessible. Many alternative clones and mirrors soon surfaced, some of which were legitimate while others were not, according to Yahoo. However, users opted to migrate to safe alternatives, fearing the closure of such mirrors and clones.



The dust has somehow settled, and now Similarweb has compiled data of over 200 million desktop visits. According to the information, TPB and Extra Torrent are the biggest players after KAT and Torrentz.eu shutdown.



TPB's traffic increased by 67 percent and gained most users overall based on its size. On the other hand, Extra Torrent had a higher percentage increase, doubling its users almost overnight with 101 percent surge in usage. The third, fourth, and fifth most popular sites include RarBG, 1337x.to, and YTS.ag, with user increase of 45 percent, 53 percent, and 44 percent correspondingly.



Smaller sites seemed to have suffered since their users were tied to Torrentz.eu. Torrent providers like Torlock have experienced a decrease in the number of users because they no longer have a huge resource to direct traffic to their sites.



"After KAT we saw a massive increase but I assume that was because Torrentz received much more traffic when KAT went down," Torlock operator told Torrent Freak. "Because we were very reliant on Torrentz when it shut down, it basically halved our traffic. So currently we are half of where we were before KAT and Torrentz shut down."



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