Can You Still Unblock RARBG? Safe Alternatives (2026)

RARBG isn’t blocked any more – it’s gone. The site shut down on 31 May 2023, and its team told TorrentFreak that there are no official proxies, mirrors or rebuilds. Every “RARBG proxy” or “mirror list” you find today points to a copy run by someone else.

So this guide no longer lists mirrors. Instead, it covers the torrent sites RARBG users moved to, how to reach them if your internet provider blocks them, and how to keep your IP address out of the swarm – with NordVPN as my pick for that last job.

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What Happened to RARBG?

RARBG was one of the biggest torrent sites in the world, known for its verified uploads and clean interface. On 31 May 2023, it posted a goodbye message to its users, and all new releases stopped the same day.

The team gave three reasons: some of its members had died of COVID complications while others were still suffering the after-effects, members were fighting in the war in Ukraine – on both sides – and inflation had made the running costs impossible to cover out of pocket.

The real RARBG is simply gone.

Why RARBG Proxies and Mirrors Aren’t Safe

When a big torrent site closes, copycats move in fast. Within a week of the shutdown, TorrentFreak was reporting on knock-offs trading on RARBG’s name – and the RARBG team confirmed that none of them were theirs.

A clone has no reason to look after you. It makes its money from advertising, and clones of famous torrent sites are exactly where malicious ads and fake downloads turn up. In 2022, Cybernews researchers found five fake Pirate Bay domains serving malicious ads, fake magnet links and fake torrent files to more than seven million visitors a month.

These are the warning signs that you’ve landed on a copy:

• It uses the RARBG name or logo. The original is gone, so any site wearing them is someone else.
• It wants you to install something – a browser extension, a “download manager” or a codec – before you can download.
• It asks to send you notifications or opens new tabs every time you click a download button.
• It asks for an account or a payment before it shows you any links.

Top Alternatives to RARBG

These are the sites to use instead. All of them were re-checked for our list of the best torrent sites in September 2026, which also gives each site’s official address and the countries where courts have ordered it blocked.

• 1337x – the closest match to RARBG for movies, TV, games and software. It has been around since 2007, and TorrentFreak ranked it the second most visited torrent site of 2026. Its ads are aggressive, so use an ad blocker.
• TorLock – lists only verified torrents and has long offered to pay users who report fakes, which makes it the best stand-in for RARBG’s reliable uploads.
• The Pirate Bay – the biggest library for older releases. Anyone can upload, so stick to uploaders with a VIP or trusted badge.
• EZTV – TV episodes, which is what many RARBG users came for in the first place.
• YTS – small, good-quality movie files. Its operator handed users’ email addresses, IP addresses and download records to film-company lawyers in 2020, though, so never visit it without a VPN.

How to Unblock the Sites That Replaced RARBG

Most of these sites are blocked by court order somewhere. UK providers, for example, have blocked The Pirate Bay since 2012 and 1337x since October 2013. There are three ways around a block, and only one of them is a good idea for torrenting.

With a VPN - Easiest and Fastest Method

A VPN connects you to a server in a country without the block, so the site loads normally, and it encrypts your traffic, so your provider can’t see which sites you visit.

For torrenting, it does one more job that matters: it replaces your IP address in the swarm. Every peer in a public torrent can see the IP address of everyone else, and a VPN makes that the server’s address instead of yours.

Look for a VPN that allows P2P traffic, has a kill switch, blocks malicious sites, and has a no-logs policy that has been independently audited. NordVPN ticks every box: P2P is allowed on all its standard servers, and its Threat Protection blocks many malicious ads and domains. Surfshark is the budget alternative, with P2P on every server and unlimited devices, and ExpressVPN is worth a look if your network blocks VPNs altogether.

With a Proxy Server

A web proxy fetches the page on your behalf, so it can get you onto a blocked torrent site.

That’s where its usefulness ends. A web proxy only handles your browser, so the moment you open a magnet link, your torrent client connects to peers with your real IP address. Whoever runs the proxy can also see everything you do through it.

With Tor Browser

Tor Browser routes your traffic through three volunteer relays, which gets you onto blocked sites and makes browsing very private.

It’s the wrong tool for the download itself, though. The Tor Project advises against using BitTorrent over Tor: most exit relays block file-sharing traffic, torrenting slows the network down for everyone, and torrent clients can leak your real IP address anyway. Use Tor to browse if you like, but not to download.

How to Torrent Safely With a VPN

Here’s how to set NordVPN up for torrenting.

1. Get NordVPN, then download and install the app for your computer.

2. Open the settings and switch on the kill switch, so your torrent client can’t reach the internet if the VPN drops, and Threat Protection, which blocks many malicious ads and domains.

3. Connect to a server near you. If the site you want is blocked where you live, pick a country without a block instead. You don’t need a special server – P2P is allowed on all of NordVPN’s standard servers.

4. Open a site from the list above, check the comments and the uploader’s badge, and start the download in your torrent client. Scan the file with your antivirus before you open it.

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FAQ

Wrapping Up

There’s no RARBG left to unblock, and anything wearing its name is a copy you shouldn’t trust. The sites above cover what RARBG did, and a VPN keeps your IP address out of the swarm on all of them.

NordVPN is my pick for its kill switch, Threat Protection and P2P support on every standard server, and Surfshark is the cheaper choice if you want to cover unlimited devices.

Torrenting isn’t only for pirated films – plenty of software, public-domain films and Linux distributions are shared this way – but if you can get something the legal way, do.