Netflix crashed just after Stranger Things series five landed.
The streaming service reportedly went down after premiering the final series of the sci-fi hit on Wednesday. The series aired in the UK at 1am on Thursday morning.
Outage tracker Downdetector recorded more than 14,000 reports in the US and in India 200 fans reported Netflix freezing and showing connection issues.
“Some members briefly experienced an issue streaming on TV devices, but service recovered for all accounts within five minutes,” Netflix said in an email, according to Reuters.
The teething problems are despite series co-creator Ross Duffer telling his Instagram followers Netflix had “increased bandwidth by 30 per cent to avoid a crash”.
It’s not the first time Netflix has crashed following a Stranger Things release - the final two episodes of the fourth season caused a brief outage in 2022.
The first four episodes of the last series premiered earlier this week, and the rest will drop on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, respectively.
The Standard gave the latest instalment four stars, writing: “Almost a decade after the first season premiered – and we were introduced to the world of Hawkins – the Duffer Brothers are finally bringing the curtain down on their blockbuster hit show.
“What a ride it’s been. The kids, first introduced as fresh-faced little 12 year olds, aren’t so little anymore. They’re all grown up, which is appropriate, because this feels like the most adult the show has ever been.
“Whereas the earlier seasons took inspiration from a generation of 80s high school films, this one the first batch of episodes veers off into much darker territory.”
Earlier this week, Millie Bobby Brown revealed she “cried for about three hours” the night before she filmed her final scenes for Stranger Things.
Brown was just 12 when she filmed the first series of Stranger Things, which aired in 2016.
Appearing on the podcast Dish from Waitrose, hosted by 6 Music star Nick Grimshaw and award-winning chef Angela Hartnett, Brown said she “burst out crying” when she arrived on set for filming the next day.
“It was really, really emotional,” added Brown, who attended the premiere of the series, earlier this month.
