World’s Biggest Manga Piracy Site Goes Dark for Good in New 2026 Update

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A massive online piracy network, which had been running for 12 years and included 60 copycat websites, has been completely shut down thanks to a joint effort by international law enforcement agencies.

Bato.to, a popular manga piracy site, officially closed earlier this month after authorities located its main operator. While initially reported that P.CoK initiated the shutdown, it’s now clear the closure was a coordinated effort involving major Japanese publishers like Kadokawa, Kodansha, Shueisha, Shogakukan, and Square Enix. These publishers expressed concerns about the site during a meeting in July 2024, leading to the takedown.

In September 2025, CODA’s Beijing office filed a lawsuit in Chinese court against a website illegally distributing manga. This action was taken on behalf of Japanese manga publishers and with the support of China Literature Limited, a subsidiary of Tencent, as their comics were also being pirated on the site.

On November 19, 2025, Shanghai police searched the home of a suspect connected to a case originating in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The individual confessed to being the main person running the Bato.to network, which includes websites like xbato.com and mangapark.io, and managing all 60 sites within that network.

Bato.to Operator Criminally Charged After Massive International Anti-Piracy Move

CODA’s project to combat online piracy used cybersecurity experts and publicly available information to identify the person running a major manga piracy website and traced them to services in China. CODA’s Representative Director, Takero Goto, praised the successful shutdown of the site, calling it a major win for international anti-piracy work. He thanked Chinese authorities and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, as well as everyone else who contributed to the investigation.

After the arrest, investigators took the suspect’s computers and are examining server information to understand how the websites were run. Even though the person running the sites was arrested, they were kept online in a limited way to help with the investigation. This limited access likely caused the significant technical problems, like broken pictures and server errors, that Bato.to users experienced during the last two months of 2025.

CODA has discovered that the people creating and sharing content on its social media come from many different countries. Because of this, CODA will keep investigating with help from international partners to find everyone involved in the network’s worldwide operations.

Bato.to Cost the Manga Industry US$5.2 Billion

The Bato.to network reached an extraordinary level of popularity. In May 2025, its 60 websites collectively received 350 million visits. At its most successful, the network generated over 400,000 RMB (around US$56,000) in advertising revenue.

From early 2022 to October 2025, the network received roughly 7.2 billion visits, generating an estimated 770 billion yen in economic activity (about US$5.2 billion). The people running the network avoided being caught for years by blocking access from China, making it appear as though all activity was coming from outside the country while still attracting a huge number of users worldwide.

CODA believes shutting down this illegal scanlation site will strongly discourage similar groups that copy, translate, and share copyrighted material worldwide. Notably, legitimate manga sales quickly increased – NTT Solmare Corporation reported that daily sales on its MangaPlaza e-book store, which serves U.S. readers, approximately doubled right after the site was taken down.

Bato.to’s shutdown is one of the most high-profile copyright cases following the .

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2026-01-29 20:12