Some very popular torrent websites have shut down over the past few months. Behemoths like KickAss Torrents, Torrentz, and TorrentHound have all been shut down for one reason or the other. Now, the world’s second largest torrent website has been shut down as well. ExtraTorrent has joined the growing list of torrent websites that are now out of business.
ExtraTorrent has been part of the torrent scene for a very long time so it was a bit surprising when the folks running the site decided to shut it down without even offering an explanation about why it’s happening.
The only statement that ExtraTorrent posted on its website said that the site has been shut down permanently and that all of the mirrors are offline as well. The site also mentioned in the notice that it’s permanently erasing all data and warns users to stay away from fake ExtraTorrent websites and clones.
ExtraTorrent has been on the scene since 2006 and over the past decade, it had gradually grown to become the second largest torrent website on the planet. That’s no small feat. However, this kind of exposure for a torrent site is normally a double-edged sword. It means that rights holders and law enforcement tend to focus on you first.
However, the reasons behind the shut down of ExtraTorrent remain unknown.