The launch of the second instalment of the fourth season of Stranger Things left Netflix broken, literally.
The final two episodes of the show’s fourth run arrived on the streaming giant at 8am this morning (July 1), which is 3am in Eastern time. At that precise moment, Downdetector, the go-to resource for all outages suffered by the world’s biggest websites, saw a massive spike in reported problems in accessing Netflix.
Almost 15,000 complaints were registered with the site within minutes of Stranger Things’ launch, with most users complaining that Netflix’s app wasn’t functioning properly and would not let them watch the show.
Netflix, to its credit, seemed to resolve the issue quickly. 15 minutes later complaints were down to just under 1,500, and 15 minutes after that, complaints were in the low 100s again, which is standard procedure for a platform with the worldwide reach of Netflix.
The speediness of resolution didn’t stop users taking to social media to complain though, with the show’s final two episodes having a run time of almost four hours, every minute was crucial.
vecna laughing at us bc netflix crashed #StrangerThings #Netflix pic.twitter.com/a3WbOPDFtYJuly 1, 2022
This isn’t the first time the launch of a series finale has given a streaming platform trouble. HBO Max has suffered similar problems twice, first when it debuted the finale of Mare Of Easttown, then again with the closing chapter of Euphoria‘s second season.
We hope they’re ready for the season finale of House Of The Dragon.
A launch like no other?
Netflix is quite a robust platform and rarely has any glitches. It has to be when it’s in over 190 countries and debuting so much new content, so for the launch of Stranger Things 4 Vol.2 to put that much pressure on its technical infrastructure is quite something.
This demand could not have come as a surprise to Netflix, though. The first seven episodes of the show’s fourth season have racked up a staggering 930 million hours of viewing in their first 28 days on the platform, that’s over 270 million hours more than the previous record-holder, the second season of Bridgerton.
All signs point toward the fourth season’s second half being another record-breaker.
If you’re planning to watch Stranger Things later today, then you can catch up with all the information you need here in our guide. Stay tuned to TechRadar, we will have a full report on the show’s finale on the site later today.