RARBG was a website that provided torrent files and magnet links to facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol. From 2014 to 2023, RARBG repeatedly appeared in TorrentFreak's yearly list of most visited torrent websites.[1] It was ranked 4th as of January 2023.[2] The website did not allow users to upload their own torrents.[1]
RARBG was founded in 2008.[3] Originally conceived as a Bulgarian BitTorrent tracker (BG stands for "Bulgaria" in the name), the website had been serving an international audience since then. According to TorrentFreak, RARBG specialized in English-language "high quality video releases", but lists other content as well, including "games, software and music."[1]
On 31 May 2023, the site announced its shutdown, citing multiple reasons, including inflation, side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine preventing it from covering the costs to keep the site running.[6] The full shutdown statement released by the site reads as follows:
Hello guys, We would like to inform you that we have decided to shut down our site. The past 2 years have been very difficult for us - some of the people in our team died due to covid [sic] complications, others still suffer the side effects of it - not being able to work at all. Some are also fighting the war in Europe - ON BOTH SIDES. Also, the power price increase in data centers in Europe hit us pretty hard. Inflation makes our daily expenses impossible to bare [sic]. Therefore we can no longer run this site without massive expenses that we can no longer cover out of pocket. After an [sic] unanimous vote we've decided that we can no longer do it. We are sorry :( Bye
RARBG was blocked in several countries around the world for legal reasons, generally due to its facilitation of copyright infringement.[1] In December 2008, the site remained closed for one week due to legal pressure from BREIN.[7] In 2017, RARBG was filtered out of Google search results following a controversy wherein links to torrent sites were highlighted in Google's "carousel" search results.[8][9] Due to a lawsuit brought forth against ISP Hurricane Electric by film studios demanding the personal information of pirates, Sophidea VPN, a VPN service operated through Hurricane Electric, blocked access to several torrent sites as of December 2020, including RARBG.[10]