Extinct: Yify

If you go looking for YIFY today, you’ll find plenty of sites using the name—but they are all imposters.

Launched in 2010 by Yiftach Swery, YIFY (later rebranded as ) became a phenomenon by mastering one specific thing: high-efficiency compression. At a time when high-definition movies were massive 10GB+ files, YIFY was pumping out 1080p rips that were under 2GB.

It wasn't for the "audiophiles" (who often criticized the low-bitrate audio), but for the casual viewer with limited bandwidth, it was a revolution. By 2015, the official YTS website was pulling in over , reaching the Alexa Top 600 worldwide. The Sudden Silence (October 2015)

But the "Real YIFY" has been extinct for nearly a decade. Here is the story of how a single developer from New Zealand changed the movie industry forever and then vanished overnight. The Rise of the Compression King

In late October 2015, the releases stopped. The website went dark with zero warning. For weeks, the "pirate" community was in a frenzy of speculation: Was it a DDoS attack? Had they just retired?

Extinct: Yify

If you go looking for YIFY today, you’ll find plenty of sites using the name—but they are all imposters.

In late October 2015, the releases stopped. The website went dark with zero warning. For weeks, the "pirate" community was in a frenzy of speculation: Was it a DDoS attack? Had they just retired?