The sudden closure of Soap2Day, a leading pirate streaming platform, has sent shockwaves through the online community. Known for its extensive library and evasive tactics against site-blocking and search engine measures, Soap2Day boasted an impressive 108 million monthly visits across multiple domains.
Despite its popularity, the reasons behind Soap2Day’s closure remain shrouded in mystery. The site simply announced its permanent shutdown without offering any explanation for the abrupt decision. This unexpected move has left millions of users scrambling to find alternative sources for their favorite movies and TV shows.
Soap2Day, a widely-known pirate streaming site for movies and TV shows, has announced its permanent closure across multiple official domains including soap2day.to, soap2day.ac, soap2day.sh, soap2day.mx, s2dfree.to, s2dfree.cc, s2dfree.de, s2dfree.is, s2dfree.nl, as well as its domain uptime advisory pages at soapgate.org and soapgate.cc. The message displayed on these platforms reads:
“Hello guys: We have decided to close soap2day forever. We are very sorry 🙂 Bye – Soap2day Team”
This unexpected shutdown has left many users surprised and searching for alternative platforms for streaming content.
Apart from the closure message shared by the Soap2Day team, no further details have been provided regarding the sudden shutdown of the site. While the exact reasons remain undisclosed, it appears that issues related to traffic levels and visitor numbers are unlikely to have contributed to the decision.
Soap2Day emerged as a notable success story in the realm of pirate streaming despite facing challenges such as web blocking, domain downranking in search engines, and other anti-piracy measures. Despite these obstacles, the site continued to experience a steady increase in traffic, with visitor numbers consistently on the rise. For instance, the site recorded 84.2 million visits in January and 93.6 million in February, with figures for March and beyond showing even more impressive growth.
The traffic levels achieved by Soap2Day underscore its significant reach and popularity within the online piracy landscape. Surpassing the likes of RARBG, YTS, and FMovies in monthly visits, Soap2Day’s closure cannot be attributed to a lack of user engagement. Even auxiliary domains like soapgate.org and soapgate.cc, which solely provided information on official URLs, collectively attracted 12 million monthly visits.
So, what led to Soap2Day’s demise? Large streaming platforms like Soap2Day face sustained pressure from global anti-piracy entities employing various tactics both domestically and internationally. In late 2021, Hollywood and Netflix secured a High Court injunction to block Soap2Day domains in the UK, followed by a similar action in Australia in early 2022, with subsequent expansions.
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) and Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) took legal action in the United States, obtaining a subpoena in March 2022 to uncover the identities of Soap2Day’s operators. The site’s substantial traffic in the United States solidified its status as a primary destination for movie and TV enthusiasts, potentially diverting viewership from licensed platforms in the same market.
In October 2022, Hollywood authorities reported Soap2Day to the United States government. The heightened traffic levels observed at the time were attributed to the MPA consolidating various Soap2Day domains. Of particular interest was the association of Soap2Day with operators based in China, adding a layer of complexity to the site’s operations.
Soap2Day also made its way onto the UK’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit’s ‘Infringing Website List’ last October, and shortly thereafter, it was targeted once again in a DMCA subpoena secured by Hollywood.
However, as with RARBG, numerous copycat sites claiming to be Soap2Day have sprung up in abundance. This trend is only expected to escalate in the days and weeks ahead. At present, there are approximately 480 domains bearing the ‘Soap2Day’ brand in circulation, based on rough estimates.
In recent tests on 50 of these domains, over 20 instances of attempted malware injections were discovered. Therefore, individuals seeking Soap2Day alternatives should exercise caution, as movies and TV shows are not the only offerings from these purported Soap2Day replacements.
