A Netflix logo is on display at the Lucca Comics & Games 2025 event, one of Europe’s largest pop culture conventions, as stars and creators of “Stranger Things” series launch Season 5, in Lucca, Italy, October 31, 2025.
Claudia Greco | Reuters
Netflix viewers experienced a brief outage Wednesday night as the video streaming platform rolled out the long-awaited fifth and final season of “Stranger Things.”
“Some members briefly experienced an issue streaming on TV devices, but service recovered for all accounts within five minutes,” a Netflix spokesperson told CNBC.
Users on social media earlier posted that they were experiencing issues, and DownDetector.com showed that reports spiked around 9 p.m. Eastern.
DownDetector logged the first wave of issues at about 7:40 p.m., and nearly 16,000 cases were reported by users at its peak. Eastern. Netflix had slated the latest season of “Stranger Things” to go live at 8 p.m.
Netflix said it would release the first four episodes of the fifth season of “Stranger Things” on Wednesday. The streaming service has said it will release another three episodes on Dec. 25 and the final episode on Dec. 31.
