Gamers Just Saved the Largest Repository of Retro Games From Closing Forever

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A huge collection of classic video games was nearly lost, but fans came together to save it. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s vital to preserve these games, and thankfully, many groups are working to do just that. Video game museums are popping up because games are a significant part of our culture – and they are art! Losing them would mean losing a piece of our history, so preservation efforts are incredibly important.

On March 12, 2026, Pirat_Nation announced on X that the Myrient project was fully supported by its community. This came after I published an article on March 5th detailing Myrient’s upcoming closure and the potential loss of around 390 terabytes of gaming data. Myrient was a large archive where users could download and save classic video games from older consoles and computers. The site announced it would shut down on March 31, 2026, causing users to rush to save what they could, but 390 TB is a huge amount of data to preserve.

Myrient’s Users Saved All of Its Data

Great news for video game fans! A community effort has successfully backed up the entire collection of Myrient, a huge online archive of over 390 terabytes of video game files (ROMs, ISOs, and more). Myrient is shutting down on March 31, 2026, but thanks to this backup, its contents will be preserved. While details about how the backup was done and where the data is now located haven’t been shared, Myrient’s closure was a big concern for the preservation community because it was the largest online source of these files. The archive cost its host $6,000 per month to maintain, which ultimately led to its shutdown.

Great news! The Myrient archive, a community-supported project dedicated to preserving video games, has a full backup. Myrient hosts over 390 terabytes of carefully organized game ROMs, ISOs, and collections, but will be closing down on March 31, 2026.

— Pirat_Nation (@Pirat_Nation) March 12, 2026

Beyond the financial challenges and lack of funding, the site faced problems with download managers that ignored requests for donations and bypassed security measures, essentially putting some features behind a paywall. The site explicitly states that using it for commercial purposes is not allowed and such misuse will not be tolerated. Furthermore, the increasing cost of computer storage (RAM, SSDs, and HDDs) – largely due to demand from AI data centers – has made it unsustainable to keep the site operational.

Fortunately, gamers have backed up the entire Myrient library, so its content won’t be lost when the site shuts down at the end of the month. This is fantastic for preserving video game history, ensuring that decades of games aren’t lost permanently. These games can potentially be restored and re-released, or saved for future enjoyment. Whatever happens next, it’s an incredible achievement by a team of dedicated fans who managed to save almost 400 TB of data. While the future is uncertain, Myrient’s archive will at least live on.

What are your thoughts on this exciting step for preserving video games? Share your opinion in the comments and join the discussion on the ComicBook Forum!

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2026-03-15 16:15