Demonoid was founded on April 21, 2003 by a Mexican Internet user known under the pseudonym of 'Deimos'.[1][7] It initially worked as a fully-private BitTorrent tracker with intermittent periods of open registrations. From the mid-2000s, Demonoid grew as one of the largest trackers in the world along with The Pirate Bay,[8][9] which led to an increase in legal threats from copyright owners.[10][11]