On August 27, 2024, the anime streaming site Aniwave shut down in a devastating blow to many anime fans. The site was an illegal streaming platform operating since 2016 and managed to amass millions of users worldwide.
After going offline, Aniwave posted a message announcing the decision to suspend its services on its site. Additionally, it urged its users to respect content creators and producers by using alternative legal anime streaming services.
Aniwave was shut down due to copyright infringement
Unfortunately for Aniwave (and the site’s fans), the shutdown was not voluntary – it resulted from a major anti-piracy crackdown on illegal streaming sites.
Surprisingly, this is not the first time Aniwave has been targeted in an anti-piracy operation.
In 2023, the site (previously known as 9anime) was the target of a DMCA subpoena by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE).
The subpoena, directed at Cloudflare, sought to unearth the identity of the persons behind several illegal streaming sites, including 9anime.
At the time of the subpoena, 9anime had grown considerably, with annual traffic of over 2.5 billion visitors. Shortly afterwards, the site rebranded to Aniwave, citing legal troubles associated with its operations.
However, the rebrand was short-lived as anti-piracy efforts finally caught up with the site in August 2024.
ACE claimed to be behind the shutdown
After the Aniwave shutdown, ACE released a statement saying it had worked with Vietnam police in an anti-piracy crackdown.
A part of the statement read:
“With the leadership of ACE and the partnership of the Ministry of Public Security [Vietnam] and the Hanoi Municipal Police, we are countering criminal activity, defending the safety of audiences, reducing risks posed to tens of millions of consumers, and protecting the rights and livelihoods of creators.”
ACE claimed that the anti-piracy crackdown had targeted a group of illegal streaming sites operating from Vietnam, which they termed “the world’s largest piracy ring.”
Besides Aniwave, the Vietnam crackdown affected other popular streaming sites. These include Fmovies, bflixz, flixtorz, and movies7.
Aniwave signed off with a goodbye message
Usually, when pirate streaming sites are shut down, they launch new mirror sites or rebrand under another name and continue with their operations, as was the case with StreamEast.
However, it seems Aniwave decided to finally call it quits.
The site administrators posted a sign-off message on the site, thanking the users for their time:
“… it is also time for us to say goodbye…It is difficult to part with something we have invested so much effort and passion into, but it is something we need to do. Thank you for standing by and supporting us throughout this time!”
“Every game must have an end…and life is about experiences. Every mistake teaches us lessons that help us grow.”
And in a rare move (given the illegal nature of the site’s streaming operations), the admins asked users to consider legal paid streaming services for their anime needs:
“If possible, please use legal paid services. It’s something we should do to show our respect for creators and content producers.”
Several impostor Aniwave sites have popped up since the shutdown
Aniwave may have encouraged its fans to use legal streaming services, but this is unlikely to change soon, at least for many fans.
Since the streaming site went offline, several other similar anime sites have popped up. Many of these new sites bear similar domain names to Aniwave and 9anime, for example:
- Aniwave.se
- Aniwave.lv
- Aniwave.bond
- Aniwave.cc
- 9animetv.to
- 9anime.com.pl
- 9anime.org.pl
- 9anime.se
It is unclear whether these new domains are mirror sites of the original Aniwave or fake copycat sites.