Imagine waiting three years for the final season of your favorite show to hit Netflix. You rush to Netflix at 5 p.m. PST on Wednesday, Nov. 26 to watch the first four episodes of Stranger Things 5, and boom, Netflix is down.
That's the unfortunate possibility Netflix is surely trying to avoid. For the first time in history, Netflix is rolling out prime time premiere for a scripted series, and it's any old scripted series. It's Stranger Things 5, the biggest show in the world right now. And, Netflix is taking a major risk in doing so.
Ross Duffer reveals Netflix boosted bandwidth by 30% to hopefully avoid a crash
Just hours before Stranger Things 5 Vol. 1 premieres on Nov. 26, Ross Duffer, the creator of Stranger Things, took to Instagram Stories to share an update on Netflix's bandwidth and what they are planning to make sure everyone gets to watch Stranger Things 5 as soon as it will be available.
"Netflix increased bandwidth by 30 percent to avoid a crash," Ross shared with three emojis: fingers crossed, folding hands, and a laughing face.
Look, without knowing the inner workings of Netflix, there's no way to make an accurate prediction if they actually have the bandwidth and capacity to stop viewers from crashing Netflix. I'm old enough to remember every episode of Game of Thrones crashing on HBO Go back in the day. Netflix has crashed on occasion, although the midnight premieres for most of its shows typically stop that from happening. Netflix did have to delay the Love is Blind live finale at on point, and it had some major issues with the Mike Tyson and Jake Paul fight. That was only a year ago.
But, then, Netflix flawlessly hosted NFL games on Christmas day in 2024. Live productions cause a myriad of issues in their nature, so it's not an apples to apples comparison.
I do know, though, that the viewing surge that's about to happen on Netflix today is unlike anything the streamer has ever seen before. Will it be able to handle it? I have my concerns, but I'm sure the engineers at Netflix have plans. And, when it's all said and done, I don't think Netflix would do a prime time release for its biggest show ever if the network didn't have a way to actually pull it off.
Fingers crossed that Stranger Things 5 doesn't crash Netflix tonight and we can all watch the heroes of Hawkins bring the fight to Vecna.
Watch Stranger Things 5 Vol. 1 at 5 p.m. PST on Wednesday, Nov. 26! We shared when everyone around the world can watch the first four episodes of the new season on Netflix. If you need an assist, check it out!