11 Best Torrent Sites That Still Work in 2020
With governments and ISPs trying to shut them down, it’s no surprise that so many torrent sites struggle to survive. To save you time, I tested over 30 sites to shortlist the 11 best options for you. Not only do they all work, but they have high-quality torrents and great speeds.
Be Careful: Use a VPN When Torrenting!
There are risks in both accessing and downloading from a torrent website. These risks range from ads, viruses, and malware, to ISP copyright infringement notifications and government fines.
Using a VPN is the only way to ensure you’re safe from the prying eyes of your ISP. If your IP address is masked by a VPN, you’ll be protected from any potential legal action.
Having tested over 30 VPNs, I’ve found NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and CyberGhost VPN to be the most reliable for torrenting in terms of speed, quality, and security.
Torrent faster and safely with a VPN
Quick Guide: 11 Best Torrent Sites That Still Work
- The Pirate Bay (TPB) — The undisputed torrent king with millions of torrents in every category
- Kickass Torrents — Great selection of new and old TV shows and movies
- RARBG — Makes sure you get a high quality, verified torrent every time
- 1337x — Reliable, user-friendly and packed with millions of torrents
- LimeTorrents — Multipurpose with a clean interface with limited ads
- TorrentDownloads — Great for content you can’t find elsewhere
- Torrentz2 — Ultra-fast torrent search engine that’s popular for music
- TorLock — Good quality anime and ebook torrents
- Zooqle — Find movies and shows at all resolutions
- YTS — High-quality movie torrents with small file sizes
- EZTV — Wide selection of popular TV shows
How to Choose the Best Torrent Site
During my tests, I looked at the following factors:
- Download speeds — You don’t want to wait hours to watch the latest episode of The Witcher. I tested this by downloading the same file from all the torrent websites using ExpressVPN to reroute my connection to the closest country to my location that wasn’t blocked.
- Number of torrents available for popular content — I chose a popular download in six categories — movie: Joker 2019; TV show: The Mandalorian; song: Bad Guy by Billie Eilish; anime: Haikyuu; ebook: Harry Potter; game: Call of Duty WWII — and recorded the number of torrents available for each.
- Number of seeders — The more seeders your torrent has, the faster you’ll be able to download it. For each of the searches I performed for the above categories, I’ve listed the best seeder to leecher ratio I found.
- Founding year — If a torrent site has been able to survive, say, a decade without being shut down by authorities, that’s a pretty good gauge of its reliability.
- If the site is banned in any countries — Some of the best torrenting sites are blocked in many countries. If one is blocked in yours, you can still easily access it by using a VPN like ExpressVPN to reroute your connection to a country where it’s not blocked.
- Number of torrents — The more torrents a site has, the more likely you’ll be able to find the content you want.
- Support for instant downloads — Whether the site lets you instantly download torrents or not.
- Any proxy/mirror sites — If the site is blocked by your ISP, you can try using a proxy or mirror site to connect.
11 Best Torrent Sites For Fast, Reliable Downloads
1. The Pirate Bay (TPB) — The Undisputed Torrent King
- Founded: 2003
- Blocked in: at least 28 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Kuwait, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States, United Kingdom.
- Number of torrents: 3,300,000+ torrents
- Average download speed: 65.9 Mbps
- Support for instant downloads? Yes
- Proxy/mirror sites: pirateproxy.live, thepiratebay.zone, piratebay1.info
The Pirate Bay (TPB) is the oldest and most well-established torrent site on the internet. Over the decades, it has evaded numerous government shutdowns and blocks, so you know it’s definitely a reliable site.
It’s impossible to be 100% sure of your safety when torrenting, but TPB comes pretty close. The site indicates if torrents are from trusted users — verified uploaders who share good quality content with no hidden nasty files — so you can rest assured you won’t accidentally download malware or spam with your torrent. It contains a few ads, but those quickly disappear if you turn on an ad blocker.
The site has a simple interface and is easy to navigate. Its filtering system lets you specify what file format, definition quality, and console you’re looking for. When I wanted to find a torrent for Red Dead Redemption for Xbox, I was able to filter out all results for other gaming systems. This saved me a lot of time as I didn’t need to check each torrent individually to work out which console it was for!
TPB is famous among internet users, but that also means government authorities are well aware of it. The site is banned in nearly 30 countries — the most out of all the sites on this list. If you live anywhere from Australia to Finland, from Russia to the UK, you won’t be able to access TPB. This means you’ll need a VPN to reroute your connection through a server in another country where the site is not banned in order to download the content you want.
Torrenting Tip: TPB changes its domain name often to avoid blocks, but you can always gain access by using a proxy or mirror site like pirateproxy.live or thepiratebay.zone. There are also websites that keep lists of active TPB proxy sites.
Number of search results | Best seeder/leecher ratio | |
Joker 2019 | 512 | 2492:370 |
The Mandalorian | 236 | 588:79 |
Bad Guy Billie Eilish | 3 | 30:4 |
Haikyuu | 89 | 33:7 |
Harry Potter ebook | 31 | 39:2 |
Call of Duty WWII | 30 | 3922:2637 |
Visit The Pirate Bay
2. Kickass Torrents — Huge Range of Shows and Movies
- Founded: 2008
- Blocked in: Banned in many countries, including the US, Australia, India, and the UK
- Number of torrents: 28,000 options when browsing, millions when performing a search
- Average download speed: 53 Mbps
- Support for instant downloads? Yes
- Proxy/mirror sites: https://kickasstorrents.to/, https://kickasstorrent.cr/, https://kickass.cd/
Kickass Torrents, also known as KATCR.CO, has a massive library of torrents and an equally large community. It had a good number of torrents in all the categories I tested and they all had plenty of seeds. In particular, its wide selection of movies and TVs stood out. This means you’ll likely be able to find whatever content you want and download it fast.
The site gives you detailed information about each torrent (like seeder to leecher ratios and whether the uploader is a verified user), so it’s easy to make a judgment about which torrents are safe and which ones you should stay away from. Each torrent comes with details about whether it was uploaded by a verified user, what individual files are included in the torrent, screenshots of videos, album art, game installation instructions, and even quick links to alternative downloads. With this kind of detailed information, I felt reassured I’d always know what I would be getting in my download.
Kickass Torrents does have some annoying ads and pop-ups that you need to spend a bit of time navigating around. But as long as you have an ad blocker, you won’t be annoyed by them when you’re browsing the website.
Like ThePirateBay, KickassTorrents is blocked in many countries including the US, UK, and Australia. If you want to access and download from it, you’ll need a good VPN which can reroute your connection through another country where the website isn’t blocked (I used NordVPN’s Norway server and didn’t face any issues).
Torrenting Tip: Check “Related torrents” at the bottom of a torrent page. This way, you can see if there are alternative torrents of the same quality with smaller file sizes.
Number of search results | Best seeder/leecher ratio | |
Joker 2019 | 204 | 9096:4760 |
The Mandalorian | 356 | 10187:5115 |
Bad Guy Billie Eilish | 3 | 40:17 |
Haikyuu | 178 | 752:64 |
Harry Potter ebook | 14 | 64:8 |
Call of Duty WWII | 33 | 309:124 |
Visit Kickass Torrents
3. RARBG — Get High Quality, Verified Torrents Every Time
- Founded: 2008
- Blocked in: Countries including Bulgaria, Denmark, Indonesia, Ireland, Morocco, Pakistan, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, and the UK
- Number of torrents: 800,000+
- Average download speed: 91.6 Mbps
- Support for instant downloads? No
- Proxy/mirror sites: rarbgmirror.com/, rarbg.com/, rarbgto.org/
RARBG has a smaller collection of torrents, but there’s a good reason for it. The general public cannot upload to it; instead, all uploaders are verified by the moderators. Of course, that doesn’t completely eliminate the risk of getting a bad torrent, but it’s for this reason that the site has a reputation for containing high-quality downloads.
Of course, RARBG’s good reputation means many authorities are aware of it. The site is blocked in a number of countries including Indonesia, Pakistan, Portugal, and the UK. But don’t worry — a reliable VPN can get you access to its content with just a couple of clicks.
I found locating and vetting torrents on RARBG to be super simple. Movies and TV shows often feature screenshots directly on the torrent page. Posters, album art, and software brand images appear in pop-ups when you hover your mouse over search results. Users can leave comments and star ratings on torrent pages to show the quality of the file.
The site has a sophisticated filtering system — for movies, you can search by compression standard and pixel definition. If you’re looking for a game you can also filter by the type of console. When I wanted to find a torrent for The Irishman in 1080 pixel definition and x265 compression, I could do so easily by checking the appropriate boxes. This saved me from needing to sort through hundreds of torrents for the same movie with different specifications.
Torrenting Tips:
- The website has some annoying pop-ups that your Chrome extension ad blocker won’t stop. Use a VPN with a malware blocker like NordVPN to ensure you’re not interrupted by pop-ups.
- RARBG doesn’t show you the highest-seeded torrents by default, so make sure to click the “S” header columns of the search results to sort it.
Number of search results | Best seeder/leecher ratio | |
Joker 2019 | 28 | 183:17 |
The Mandalorian | 81 | 130:18 |
Bad Guy Billie Eilish | 0 | N/A |
Haikyuu | 0 | N/A |
Harry Potter ebook | 0 | N/A |
Call of Duty WWII | 1 | 34:18 |
Visit RARBG
4. 1337x — Reliable With a Massive Torrents Library
- Founded: 2007
- Blocked in: Austria, the UK, Ireland, and Australia
- Number of torrents: 2,400,000+ torrents
- Average download speed: 69.4 Mbps
- Support for instant downloads? No
- Proxy/mirror sites: 1337x.tel, 1337xto.in, 1337xto.pw
As the third most popular torrent site in the world and one of the oldest still in operation, 1337x is a reliable option with plenty of high-quality torrents in every category. New content, provided by a loyal group of followers, is uploaded daily. You can find everything from old movies to the latest TV shows, music, and games.
One of the reasons the site has remained popular for so long is because it is heavily moderated. This means the majority of its torrents are of excellent quality. However, despite this, the occasional bad torrent which contains malware or spyware can still slip through. To guarantee your safety while downloading from the site, I’d recommend using a VPN with malware protection.
1337x’s user-friendly interface makes finding the torrent you want easy. It has on-page information for each download including the number of times it’s been downloaded, the number of seeders and leechers, and when the torrent was last checked by moderators. When I wanted to find a torrent for Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, I was able to quickly find one that had been a good number of seeders and had last checked under an hour ago. That made it easy for me to judge that the torrent was most likely going to be a reliable one.
Number of search results | Best seeder/leecher ratio | |
Joker 2019 | 195 | 10903:5161 |
The Mandalorian | 342 | 6903:2894 |
Bad Guy Billie Eilish | 1 | 1:0 |
Haikyuu | 177 | 607:31 |
Harry Potter ebook | 16 | 64:8 |
Call of Duty WWII | 30 | 309: 124 |
Visit 1337x
5. LimeTorrents — Millions of Torrents in Every Category
- Founded: 2009
- Blocked in: France, the UK, and Australia.
- Number of torrents: 9,800,000+
- Average download speed: 39.1 Mbps
- Support for instant downloads? Yes
- Proxy/mirror sites: limetorrents.zone, limetorrents.co, limetorrents.in/
With nearly 10 million torrents, LimeTorrents is one of the biggest torrent sites on the internet. It has tons of movies, TV shows, music, games, and more. Each search I performed came back with plenty of results, so you should have no trouble finding the content you want.
The site focuses on more recent files, so you can usually find new and popular releases with lots of seeders and download them quickly. However, this also means older torrents aren’t so easy to find.
LimeTorrents has a comprehensive tracker list and directories of the most popular recent torrents. There’s a separate section for verified torrents where you can find links that have been vetted. You can also sort torrents by the number of seeders. When I wanted to find a torrent for the latest episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, it only took me a couple clicks to sort through the torrents and work out which ones looked reliable.
There were some fake links and pop-ups on the site that I wasn’t able to block with my Chrome extension ad blocker. To make sure you don’t accidentally click on anything that could infect your device, I recommend using a VPN that has a built-in adblocker and malware blocker while surfing the site.
Torrenting Tip: You can check the torrent “Health” in the search results to see how many people are actively seeding the torrent. The more active seeds, the faster you can download the files.
Number of search results | Best seeder/leecher ratio | |
Joker 2019 | 981 | 3969:689 |
The Mandalorian | 1000+ | 2169:777 |
Bad Guy Billie Eilish | 2 | 41:7 |
Haikyuu | 1000+ | 2331:468 |
Harry Potter ebook | 12 | 54:2 |
Call of Duty WWII | 248 | 722:141 |
Visit LimeTorrents
6. TorrentDownloads — For Content You Can’t Find Elsewhere
- Founded: 2007
- Blocked in: the UK
- Number of torrents: 16,000,000+:
- Average download speed: 56.2 Mbps
- Support for instant downloads? No
- Proxy/mirror sites: torrentdownloads.unblockall.org, torrentdownloads.unblocker.cc
With one of the biggest databases on the internet, TorrentDownloads is the site to visit if you’re looking for an obscure torrent that you can’t find elsewhere. It’s also a good multipurpose site with a wide selection of TV shows, movies, games, apps, and more.
When I wanted to find a torrent for MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Ultimate 12, I wasn’t able to find it on the top 5 sites on this list. When I searched for it on TorrentDownloads, however, it only took me a few minutes to find a working link for the obscure app.
The website’s interface is simple and easy to use. An advanced search option lets you filter results by category and status. Each torrent contains information about the number of seeders and torrent health, helping you choose safe links. You can also check out comments and ratings for each torrent to make sure the one you’re downloading doesn’t have fake files. With these intuitive features, it never took me longer than 30 seconds to find and vet the torrent link I wanted.
The site does contain some annoying pop-ups, so I’d recommend you use a VPN with a built-in adblocker when surfing it.
Number of search results | Best seeder/leecher ratio | |
Joker 2019 | 983 | 5989:62 |
The Mandalorian | 1000+ | 915:70 |
Bad Guy Billie Eilish | 4 | 45:7 |
Haikyuu | 1000+ | 1188:86 |
Harry Potter ebook | 28 | 158:69 |
Call of Duty WWII | 340 | 9672:14 |
Visit TorrentDownloads
7. Torrentz2 — Ultra-Fast Torrent Search Engine Good for Music
- Founded: 2016
- Blocked in: Not blocked in any countries as it’s a torrent search engine
- Number of torrents: Over 61,000,000 torrents indexed
- Average download speed: 86.9 Mbps (download speed from EZTV)
- Support for instant downloads? No
- Proxy/mirror sites: https://torrentz2.eu/, https://torrentz2.cc/
Torrentz2 is a basic torrent search engine that scans every torrent site in its database for your search terms and lists the sites that offer related torrents. You then download the torrent directly from the site that hosts the file or magnet link. This makes it a great backup option if your regular torrent site doesn’t have the content you want.
I found Torrentz2’s selection of music particularly impressive. It had the most results for Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy out of all the sites on this list.
One downside I found is that Torrentz2’s search function wasn’t as good as other sites I tested. Search results for “Joker 2019” contained a lot of results for other torrents which just mentioned the word “Joker” or “2019”. However, if you’re willing to spend a bit of time searching through results, you’ll definitely be able to find a lot of torrent options for the content you want.
Like many other sites on this list, Torrentz2’s website has some ads, pop-ups, and fake links that lead to suspicious websites. To make sure you’re browsing it safely, use a VPN with a malware blocker like NordVPN.
Torrenting Tip: Filter by “Verified” to only view verified torrents to make sure you’re downloading safe content.
Number of search results | Best seeder/leecher ratio | |
Joker 2019 | 163 | 177: 44 |
The Mandalorian | 3033 | 621:105 |
Bad Guy Billie Eilish | 9 | 42:5 |
Haikyuu | 1909 | 108:3 |
Harry Potter ebook | 824 | 14:1 |
Call of Duty WWII | 14 | 60:95 |
Visit Torrent2z
8. TorLock — Strong Community Verification System for Safe Downloads
- Founded: 2010
- Blocked in: Australia, India, and the UK
- Number of torrents: 4,500,000+ torrents
- Average download speed: 59.7 Mbps
- Support for instant downloads? Yes
- Proxy/mirror sites: torlock.unblocked.bet/, t0rlock1.unblocked.lol
The best thing about TorLock is its guarantee of verified torrents only. The website uploads torrents from all around the internet. If a user finds a fake torrent, they can report it to TorLock and they’ll be paid $1. I haven’t heard of any other torrent site doing this — it’s definitely a good incentive to help keep the site operating safely.
However, Torlock does contain a lot of misleading links. They appeared on the search page above legitimate results, and then again on the individual pages of torrent links. It’s easy to click into one of these links, which can send you to all kinds of nasty sites. If you’re going to use Torlock, I recommend using it with a VPN with malware protection like NordVPN.
Another issue I found was that for many of the searches I performed, many torrents were available but none had any seeders. This means you won’t be able to download the content. Because of this, I recommend using TorLock only as a back-up option.
Number of search results | Best seeder/leecher ratio | |
Joker 2019 | 764 | 2:4 |
The Mandalorian | 1000+ | 115:14 |
Bad Guy Billie Eilish | 4 | 0:0 |
Haikyuu | 338 | 0:0 |
Harry Potter ebook | 3 | 0:0 |
Call of Duty WWII | 44 | 0:0 |
Visit TorLock
9. Zooqle — Movies and Shows at All Resolutions
- Founded: 2013
- Blocked in: None
- Number of torrents: 3,500,000+ torrents indexed
- Average download speed: 39.1 Mbps
- Support for instant downloads? Yes
- Proxy/mirror sites: zooqle.unblocked.win, zooqle.nocensor.xyz
Zooqle is one of the newer sites on this list. While it’s remained under the radar for a while, it’s been gaining in popularity because of its massive database. The indexing site focuses on movies and TV shows but also has a good range of games, software, and ebooks.
The site has an easy to use interface. Each torrent contains information about the ratio of seeders to leechers, how long ago the file was uploaded and resolution quality. When I wanted to find a torrent for the latest episode of The Bold Type, it took me under a minute to find one in the format and quality that I wanted.
I got a lot of pop-ups when I was trying to navigate the site and found it pretty annoying to keep closing them. If you’re thinking of using Zooqle, I definitely recommend using it with a VPN (like CyberGhost) that blocks ads and malware.
Torrenting Tip: Can’t remember the name of a TV show or movie, but remember who was in it? You can search on Zooqle for specific actors and the site will show you what they’ve been in (although not every torrent is accurately tagged).
Number of search results | Best seeder/leecher ratio | |
Joker 2019 | 142 | 4918:810 |
The Mandalorian | 614 | 1622:156 |
Bad Guy Billie Eilish | 0 | N/A |
Haikyuu | 279 | 385:59 |
Harry Potter ebook | 0 | N/A |
Call of Duty WWII | 16 | 568:53 |
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