MethStreams is an infamous site that, until recently, offered free live streaming of major sporting events like NFL, NBA, MLB, and UFC. Sports fans will, however, have to look for other ways to watch live sports as the pirated site was recently shut down.
There are scant details on what led to the sports streaming site’s shutdown. However, here is everything we know so far, from the timeline of the shutdown to the site’s owner hinting at a possible return.

MethStreams went dark with the owner announcing a break from live streaming
MethStreams and its sister website, CrackStreams, went dark on December 30, 2024. The owner of the two sites did not explain why the pirated sites shut down, but a banner message appeared on both websites stating that he would be taking a break from live streaming.

The shutdown came after a major ani-piracy operation targeting illegal sports streaming sites
While MethStreams’ owner shied away from giving reasons for the going dark, it is very likely that the pirated sports site was shut down in an anti-piracy operation.
On December 19, 2024, the anti-piracy organization Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) released a statement revealing that it had shut down a live sports piracy ring operating from Vietnam.
The anti-piracy operation reportedly targeted over 138 live sports domains, with the site receiving 812 million visitors over 12 months.
Among the targeted domains was crackstreams.dev, one of the previous domains used by MethStreams sister site, Crackstreams.in.
“The shuttered sites include notorious sports piracy targets such as bestsolaris[dot]com, streameast[dot]to; markkystreams[dot]com; crackstreams[dot]dev; and weakspell[dot]to.”
Around the same time, MethStreams and CrackStreams’ owner posted a message on a discord channel telling the users that one of CrackStream’s domains had been captured by domain providers.
“So our domain name https://the.crackstreams.ws has been locked down by our domain provider. The new site is https://crackstreams.in @everyone we will see what can be done but its most likely gone.”
Unfortunately for the site’s users, the new CrackStreams domain was only up and running for a couple of weeks before It also went dark alongside MethStreams.
Before going dark, MethStreams attracted a lot of attention thanks to ESPN journalist Adam Schefter
Before MethStreams went dark, it had received considerable attention in the sporting community after ESPN’s NFL Insider Adam Schefter posted a sports clip taken from the pirated site on his X account.
It later emerged that Schefter was not using the illegal site but had taken a clip from another X user and tweeted it.
However, the clip went viral and got many sports fans talking, attracting much attention to the site.
The bizarre incident is similar to another one where a clip was shared on X showing NBA legend Lebron James watching a live match from another pirated sports streaming site, StreamEast.
And as you would expect, the clip went viral, which garnered StreamEast a lot of attention.
However, it would seem that attention brought about by sports celebrities appearing to use pirated sites is not always positive (to the pirated sites), as StreamEast was shut down soon after the Lebron James incident.
The same scenario also seems to have occurred with MethStreams, as the site went dark within a couple of months of the Adam Schefter incident.
In addition, data from the Transparency Report shows that URL delisting requests for the MethStreams domain increased immediately after Schefter’s video went viral.

MethStreams is one of the major live sports streaming sites to be taken down recently
The shutdown of MethStreams (and its sister site CrackStreams), while sudden, is not a surprise.
Several anti-piracy operations have targeted illegal streaming sites in the past few months, especially those offering live sports.
Other websites that have been shut down include StreamEast, nflstreams, markkysreams, nflbite, mmastreams, hesgoals, soccerstreams, stream2watches, and nbastreams.
Despite the shutdown, the site’s owner has hinted at a possible return
MethStreams’ shutdown has done little to curtail the site’s owner.
In the banner message posted on the site, the owner stated that they would be “taking a break from live streaming.”
They also left a link for their Discord channel, asking fans to join for updates on their return.
The owner’s message has given several users hope that the shutdown is only temporarily temporary and that the sites might return, possibly under new domains.
So, what next for sports fans who use sites like MethStreams?
The shutdown of MethStreams and CrackStreams means that sports fans who use illegal streaming sites have fewer options, especially with the increased takedown of pirated sports streaming sites in the past few months.
Unfortunately, these sites going dark will do little to deter people who offer pirated live sports content.
Already, there are several domains like methstreams.best, methstreams.cx, crackstreams.blog, and crackstreams.li – likely copycats– have popped up to fill the gap left.
While sports fans can access free live sports from these (and several other) pirated websites, they should be very careful about illegal streaming, which is both illegal and unethical.
In addition, copycat websites of popular sites like MethStreams are likely to be run by criminals, who can steal users’ personal information or infect their devices with malware.
Therefore, the best thing to do as a sports fan is to find legal sports streaming websites and platforms like DAZN, Fubo, BBC iPlayer, Sling TV, and Red Bull TV.