Fans were anxiously waiting for the premiere of the “Game of Thrones” prequel “House of the Dragon” on Sunday evening — but some viewers were in for an infuriating night when the much-anticipated 10-episode series finally dropped after months of hype.
So many fans were trying to stream the show simultaneously — that HBO Max actually crashed. This led to thousands of users not being able to watch the first episode.
Many subscribers reportedly fell victim to the streamer’s app fizzling out, with the website outage service Down Detector reporting that there were at about 3,000 blackouts between 8:40 p.m. and 9:25 p,.m. EDT.
As per usual, they took to social media only to express their frustrations over technical issues — and quickly discovered others were also having problems: “The site crashed… @hbomax,” one posted the company’s Twitter account.
The streaming service then responded: “Hi Leah, We’re aware some users may be encountering issues at the moment. Please try closing the app and restarting to see if this helps. Reach back out right away if you still have trouble. Thanks!”
The company’s account also joked about the downfall, writing: “The only thing that could tear down the House of the Dragon was itself. #HOTD.”
“House of the Dragon” takes place 200 years before the events of “Game of Thrones” and tells the tale of House Targaryen.
Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Rhys Ifan and Milly Alcock star in the fantasy drama.
“Imagine literally paying for hbo max just for it to crash as soon has [‘House of the Dragon’] comes out my dad is on the verge of a breakdown,” another viewer scribed.
One frustrated fan whined: “I’m literally on the verge of losing it over this hbo max crash.”
One person noted, “About 25 minutes in to trying to watch #HouseoftheDragon only to have my HBO Max repeatedly crash after showing me the promo about all the “groundbreaking new originals”they have coming. Not really a great sales pitch.”
A fan added a meme of Patrick Star from “SpongeBob Squarepants” doing a yoga pose as they tweeted: “Mentally preparing myself cause I know the HBO Max app gonna crash for the first 15 minutes.”
Others simply threatened to cancel their subscription because of the outage. “Getting rid of HBO Max. This crash is just too much,” one chimed in.