Netflix recovers after 'Stranger Things' season five crashes service

Netflix recovers after 'Stranger Things' season five crashes service
Netflix logo displayed at the Lucca Comics & Games 2025 event, Lucca, Italy, 31 October, 2025
Reuters

Netflix crashed on Wednesday for about an hour in the U.S. as it launched season five of "Stranger Things", with the service becoming inaccessible to many subscribers within minutes of the episodes going live at 8 p.m. local time.

Data from outage monitor Downdetector showed a spike of 14,290 user reports at the height of the disruption. By 8:45 p.m. local time, the number of complaints had fallen below 800, suggesting the service had stabilised.

In an email response to Reuters, Netflix said, “Some members briefly experienced an issue streaming on TV devices, but service recovered for all accounts within five minutes.”

Netflix has ranked 'Stranger Things' as its third-most popular English-language series globally, with a total of 140.7 million views.

The new season marks the beginning of the end for the hit Duffer Brothers’ series, arriving more than three years after the previous instalment.

The episodes follow the Hawkins teenagers as they hunt the villainous Vecna, while their town is placed under military lockdown and Eleven attempts to evade government forces.

The platform has faced similar problems during major releases, including the Mike Tyson–Jake Paul boxing event and the live broadcast of Love is Blind.

A smaller outage also accompanied the release of the final two episodes of Stranger Things season four in 2022.

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