Animeflix, the popular pirate anime site, falls

Pirated anime site Animeflix has unexpectedly shut down, leaving millions of users without access to its vast library of series and movies. Although the site's operators have not mentioned a specific reason for the closure, they noted that the decision was made after "careful deliberation."

Animeflix had gained massive popularity, racking up tens of millions of monthly views and boasting an active Discord community of approximately 35,000 members. This community participated in discussions, art competitions, and even a chess tournament. However, the site's main business was the illegal streaming of anime, which attracted considerable legal pressure in recent months.

The site had been identified as one of the targets of closure by the anti-piracy coalition ACE last December. In May, rights holders ramped up pressure through India's High Court, obtaining a sweeping injunction suspending Animeflix's main domain name, Animeflix.live. Although the site moved to new domains, Animeflix.gg and Animeflix.li, the legal threat persisted.

This week, Animeflix became unavailable, initially displaying an error message from Cloudflare. This time, the problem was not the domain, but a decision by the team to shut down the site without warning. "It is with great regret that we announce the closure of Animeflix. After careful consideration, we have decided to shut down our service immediately. We deeply appreciate your support and enthusiasm over the years. We hope that the joy and excitement of anime will continue to brighten their days through other wonderful platforms," stated the Animeflix team.

Although no specific details have been provided on the reasons for the closure, it is clear that maintaining such a site online comes with significant challenges, mainly related to copyright issues. Rights holders were actively monitoring the site and looking for options to shut it down, which likely influenced the final decision.

The closure of Animeflix is a common fate for many pirate sites. Given the popularity of the Animeflix brand, it is likely that the name will be reused by a new team willing to fill the void left by its closure. While many users mourn the demise of their favorite anime portal, rights holders might be celebrating before focusing on other pirate anime sites that still remain active.

Source: Twitter