News.com.au and Variety reported that as millions attempted to stream the widely anticipated "Stranger Things 4" volume 2, streaming platform Netflix had difficulties staying up.
There's no doubt that the outage, which was announced to viewers with the dreaded "network error" notice, has changed Friday night plans across the country.
In its first four weeks of release, "Stranger Things 4" already holds the record for being the No. 1 English-language series on the service, according to data provided by Netflix based on total viewing hours. The combined running time of the two episodes of Season 4 Volume 2 is little under four hours: Episode 8 is 85 minutes long, while Episode 9 is 150 minutes.
Netflix Crashes Following New 'Stranger Things' Release
An error message had been sent to users informing them that there was a problem connecting to servers.
User reports of Netflix issues peaked at 3:01 a.m. ET, according to the international uptime monitoring website Downdetector.com, when "Stranger Things 4" Volume 2 premiered. More than 15,000 Netflix error reports were received at the peak of the hour, but things appeared to be under control after some time.
News.com.au mentioned that only select individuals are affected by the outage, noting that the main problem is with mobile users. Numerous Australians have reported having no trouble accessing the popular Netflix TV show on social media.
After the premiere of the latest season of "Stranger Things," Netflix in India also experienced a brief outage.
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'Stranger Things' Fans Went to Twitter to Rant About the Technical Issue
Early on Friday, before Netflix appears to have fixed the technical problems, users from all around the world vented on social media about their annoyance at not being able to access the service and shared memes with "Stranger Things 4" ultra-villain Vecna.
Some of the rants of the fans of the hit show are shown below:
So much traffic on @netflix here in Australia on the @Stranger_Things part 2 release that this message is coming up 🥲 pic.twitter.com/9ozwGCFkDu
— Mitra (@mitraz93) July 1, 2022
Other Streaming Platforms Also Experienced Technical Difficulties Due to High Demand
In times of extremely heavy demand, other streaming providers have had a hard time staying online. For instance, HBO Max experienced issues with the "Euphoria" Season 2 finale earlier this year.
In a separate report by Variety, TV and mobile HBO Max's users experienced problems connecting to the service. However, after the initial issues, HBO Max access seemed to be restored in less than 30 minutes. By 9:05 p.m. ET, there were more than 52,000 complaints on DownDetector.com, but by 9:20 p.m., the number had dropped to around 4,000.
When the season finale of the acclaimed limited-series crime drama "Mare of Easttown," starring Kate Winslet, was scheduled to air in May 2021, the service was likewise down for roughly a half-hour.
Related Article: Hulu Users Have Reported Widespread Issues With the Streaming Service
