Netflix crashes under ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 frenzy

Netflix couldn’t withstand the Upside Down.

The streamer briefly crashed Wednesday night just as “Stranger Things” Season 5, the long-awaited first half of the show’s final chapter, dropped at 8 p.m. ET.

According to outage trackers, error reports spiked right as the first four episodes went live, with many users receiving an “NSEZ-403” message.

“Something went wrong,” it displayed. “Sorry, we’re having trouble with your request. You’ll find lots to explore on the home page.”

The error message also showed users a background image of an odd cake, reportedly from the reality cooking competition show “Nailed It!”

Although tens of thousands of viewers reported Netflix interruptions beginning around 7:50 p.m. ET, the outages appeared to decline by 8:10 p.m. ET. 

Meanwhile, the streaming giant’s own interruption detector indicated that the service was still online.

“Netflix is up!” the platform showed. “We are not currently experiencing an interruption to our streaming service.”

The timing raised eyebrows, especially after “Stranger Things” co-creator Ross Duffer revealed earlier in the day that Netflix had taken steps to avoid this exact problem.

“Netflix increased bandwidth by 30 percent to avoid a crash,” he wrote on his Instagram Stories shortly before the Season 5 premiere.

Despite the surge, the platform stabilized within minutes, and streaming resumed normally – but not before millions of fans gearing up for their “Stranger Things” binge were served a moment of chaos and cake.

“It seems Netflix didn’t expect such massive traffic,” one user wrote on X amid the crash.

“Everyone going to Twitter to see if Netflix crashed,” added another.

“Netflix servers weren’t ready for the upside down traffic surge,” a third person joked, while a fourth commented, “Netflix crashed because the Demogorgon tried to binge-watch too? Or was it just Eleven’s powers finally short-circuiting the servers?”

Netflix did not immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.

This wouldn’t be the first time that a major TV event impacted Netflix access and caused the platform to crash.

Hundreds of thousands of customers reported similar issues during the boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson when it streamed live on the platform in November 2024.

Before that incident, the streamer’s live “Love Is Blind” Season 4 reunion special in April 2023 had to be pushed back a day due to connection problems.

“Stranger Things” Season 5 is set to release on Netflix in three parts: Volume 1 on Nov. 26, Volume 2 on Dec. 25 and the series finale on Dec. 31.

The first four episodes of the eight-episode season saw Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Hopper (David Harbour) reunite with the rest of the Hawkins crew to close out the story’s final chapter.