Netflix crashes within minutes of releasing Stranger Things series five

Viewers unable to watch episodes of long-awaited final series on TV when the streaming service briefly froze

A scene from the fifth and final series of Stranger Things. A day before the finale dropped, all previous Stranger Things seasons made it to Netflix’s top 10 shows charts, a first. Picture: Courtesy of Netflix

When Netflix crashed within minutes of releasing Stranger Things series five, it felt like a plot twist worthy of the sci-fi show itself.

Viewers were left unable to stream the opening episodes of the long-awaited final series, with many voicing their frustration on social media platforms.

The outage tracker Downdetector recorded more than 14,000 reports in the US, while fans in India reported the streaming service freezing and displaying connection errors, with 200 reports made in the country during its peak.

“Some members briefly experienced an issue streaming on TV devices, but service recovered for all accounts within five minutes,” Netflix said in an emailed response reported by Reuters.

Netflix has previously crashed while hosting major events such as the Mike Tyson v Jake Paul boxing bout and a live reunion for the reality dating show Love is Blind in 2024. Netflix also had a brief outage when the final two episodes of the fourth season of Stranger Things were released in 2022.

Ross Duffer, series co-creator, said on his Instagram that Netflix had “increased bandwidth by 30% to avoid a crash”.

A day before the series finale was due to drop, all previous Stranger Things seasons made it to Netflix’s top 10 shows charts, a first for any show on the streaming platform.

Sadie Sink, from left, Caleb McLaughlin, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Noah Schnapp and Millie Bobby Brown arrive at the world premiere of the fifth season of "Stranger Things" on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025, at TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. Picture: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Stranger Things is set in the 1980s and follows the residents of a fictional Indiana small town called Hawkins after a young girl with psychokinetic abilities opens a gateway between the Earth and another dimension known as the Upside Down.

Season five, which dropped its first four episodes onWednesday, has been three years in the making and is hotly anticipated – with co-creators, brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, sharing that it will feature “the most violent death of any season”.

The new season will also include a time jump to make up for the pace at which the show’s stars are out-aging the characters they play.

Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin and Gaten Matarazzo have led the cast of the series since its debut almost a decade ago, when they were all young teenagers, starring alongside adult actors Joe Keery, Natalia Dyer, Winona Ryder and David Harbour.

Sadie Sink joined in the second season and has remained a fan favourite. She described the emotional experience of filming her final scenes as akin to “saying goodbye to your childhood”.