Manga piracy site Bato became unresponsive as of Sunday, January 18. Many of its mirrors, Discord server, X (formerly Twitter) account, and the associated social media accounts of the website’s developer also deactivated and are no longer up. The main website and its mirrors don’t load and respond with “Page Not Found,” “Under Maintenance,” or simple 404 errors.
This comes half a year after the closure of Mangajikan in June 2025 and Comick in August 2025.
In the secondary “Bato (WIP)” Discord channel, created shortly after the main one disappeared, channel moderators (who were affiliated with the site) posted the following message: “After careful consideration, we (the Discord staff) have collectively decided to delete this server due to ongoing issues related to the site and resulting legal challenges.”
Another moderator expressed they were stepping down as “they are coming for all staff related to the server.” It’s unclear who or what entity is responsible for the site, Discord server, and its social media accounts going dark.
To complicate the situation, the moderator clarified, “Bato is now owned separately,” but did not elaborate by who and whether ownership changes mean the site will eventually return. In addition, the secondary Discord server will be “deleted within the next 3 days” and can’t be kept up “due to legal issues.”
The Bato websites hosted pirated multi-language translated manga, manhwa, and Webtoons, and received over 146 million monthly visits, according to Semrush.
Sources: Bato website, Bato Discord server, Bato secondary Discord server
