Thousands of Netflix users in the US and India experienced service disruptions on Thursday, coinciding with the much-anticipated release of Stranger Things Season 5 Vol. 1. Streaming interruptions affected both the app and website, with users reporting problems ranging from login failures to video streaming glitches.
According to Downdetector, over 15,000 users in the US reported issues with Netflix on Thursday. Of these, 56% faced streaming problems, 35% experienced server connection issues, and 10% could not log in to their accounts.
The disruptions were reported across multiple cities, including New York, Minneapolis, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles, highlighting the widespread impact of the outage.
Netflix users in India’s Tier-I cities, such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, reported similar issues. Data from Downdetector showed that 79% faced video streaming issues, 17% reported website downtime, and 3% experienced server connectivity problems. The peak of these glitches occurred around 6 AM IST.
By the time of reporting, Netflix’s app and website appeared to be working normally in India.
The timing of the outage coincided with the release of Stranger Things Season 5 Vol. 1, which includes four episodes. The second volume is set to release on December 25, with the season finale scheduled for New Year’s Eve.
In this season, the heroes return to Hawkins to confront Vecna and the Upside Down in an epic showdown. Fans will see Eleven face her former psychic counterpart, while Will’s connection to the Upside Down becomes more prominent.
Fans took to X (formerly Twitter) to express frustration over the outage, with many linking it to the Stranger Things launch.
Some reactions included:
“Me staying up until 1 AM and then Netflix going down instantly.”
“They fixed the bandwidth, and Netflix still crashed.”
“Well, the Netflix servers are down… This was expected with the FINAL season of Stranger Things.”
“Why didn’t Netflix do a weekly release for #StrangerThings5? It would boost subscriptions and avoid spoilers.”
Netflix and Netflix India continued to promote the show on social media, releasing snippets and reminders about the launch despite the technical issues.
The Netflix outage comes amid a recent spate of service disruptions globally. Just a day before, Google Meet users in India faced major connectivity issues, with thousands reporting trouble accessing the platform.
Data from Downdetector revealed that outage reports surged sharply, highlighting a pattern of recurring service interruptions.
In recent months, several high-profile tech platforms have experienced global outages:
Cloudflare, a US-based web security company, faced a significant disruption, affecting millions of websites and triggering widespread error messages.
Platforms including X and OpenAI reported elevated outage levels during Cloudflare’s downtime.
Less than a month earlier, major cloud service providers like Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure also experienced technical failures affecting multiple online services.
These incidents underscore the increasing vulnerability of online platforms and highlight the importance of robust server infrastructure for streaming services like Netflix.
The Netflix outage during the launch of Stranger Things Season 5 disrupted thousands of users across the US and India. While technical issues were resolved quickly, the incident highlights the growing challenges of managing high-demand streaming events. As Netflix and other platforms continue to scale globally, ensuring reliable infrastructure remains a top priority.