The Story of YTS: From Movie Torrents to Internet Legend
If you’ve ever searched for movie torrents in the past decade, chances are you’ve come across YTS (also known as YIFY). For many people, YTS wasn’t just another torrent site—it became the go-to place for downloading movies quickly, easily, and in great quality.
How It All Started
Back in 2010, a New Zealander named Yiftach Swery (a.k.a. YIFY) began encoding and uploading movies. His goal was simple:
Make high-quality movies available in small file sizes so anyone could download them, even with slower internet.
This was a game-changer. At the time, most movie torrents were either too big (taking forever to download) or low quality (blurry, bad audio). YIFY releases hit the sweet spot—good quality, small size. Naturally, the group exploded in popularity.
Rise of YTS
By around 2011–2013, YIFY had become a household name in torrenting. Movie lovers knew if a new film came out, the YIFY version was worth waiting for. The branding itself—“YIFY”—became so trusted that other torrent sites would re-upload their releases just to get traffic.
Eventually, YIFY’s releases became so popular that the group decided to build their own official site: YTS.to. That’s when YIFY transformed from just a release group into a global torrent brand.
YTS by the Numbers
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Millions of users worldwide – At its peak (before the 2015 shutdown), YTS attracted an estimated 1–2 million visitors per day.
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Top torrent site – YTS consistently ranked among the top 5 torrent websites globally, competing with The Pirate Bay, 1337x, and RARBG.
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Massive movie library – Before legal troubles shut it down, the site had tens of thousands of movies, all encoded in its famous small-size, high-quality format.
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Post-shutdown traffic – Even after the official site was taken offline, YTS “clones” like YTS.mx have continued to pull in huge audiences. Reports suggest they get over 75 million visits per month even today.
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Global reach – The majority of traffic came from the U.S., India, and the U.K., but YTS was (and still is) a global phenomenon, especially in regions with limited streaming availability.
Legal Troubles & Shutdown
Of course, this much attention also attracted… lawyers. Hollywood studios had their eyes on YTS for years, and in 2015, things came to a head. The original YIFY/YTS site was shut down after legal action from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
Yiftach Swery himself stepped away, and just like that—the original YIFY group was no more.
YTS Lives On (Sort Of…)
But as with most things on the internet, YTS didn’t really die. Several clone and copycat sites popped up almost immediately, keeping the YTS name alive. Sites like YTS.mx and others claimed to be the “official” YTS, and while they weren’t run by the original group, they continued the tradition of offering small-size, high-quality movie torrents.
To this day, millions of users still search for “YTS” every month. It’s become more of an idea than a single site—synonymous with lightweight, quality movie downloads.
Why People Still Talk About YTS
So why is YTS still such a big deal?
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Efficiency: Small file sizes with decent quality.
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Consistency: You knew exactly what you were getting with a YIFY release.
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Brand Power: The name stuck, even years after the original group vanished.
TL/DR: YTS started as one person’s hobby in New Zealand, grew into the world’s most famous torrent brand, got shut down by Hollywood, but somehow never really disappeared. Even today, it’s a huge part of torrenting culture.