House of the Dragon crashes for some viewers, HBO Max blames Amazon
By Ariba Bhuvad
Well, it finally happened, folks. The highly-anticipated Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon, officially premiered last night. I have so many feelings about it, but the one that stands out most is a relief. In a world where the flagship series’ final season left us with a bitter taste in our mouths, this new show gives us everything we were hoping for.
Not only are there dragons galore, but the story is dark, dramatic, and unique. The characters already possess so much depth and the future looks very bright. Personally, I loved everything about it, and I’m super pumped for what else is in store.
As fans worldwide gathered to catch the series premiere of House of the Dragon, many were disappointed because HBO Max was not working for them. It kept crashing and prevented them from joining in on the fun. But as it turns out, HBO Max may not be the ones to blame.
HBO Max crashes during House of the Dragon premiere (but not for everyone)
Frantic fans took to Twitter to share their frustration as they tried to watch House of the Dragon. It looks like around 3,000 subscribers were impacted, according to DownDetector.com.
An HBO spokesperson released a statement regarding the crash and pointed to Amazon Fire Stick devices as the problem. “House of the Dragon is being successfully viewed by millions of HBO Max subscribers this evening,” the statement reads. “We’re aware of a small portion of users attempting to connect via Fire TV devices that are having issues and are in the process of resolving for those impacted users.” Dang, Amazon, called out!
Subscribers of the Crave streaming service also had issues with HBO Max, according to DownDetector.com. Yikes, I’m sorry for those that had issues last night! I would have been so infuriated!
Hopefully, all problems have been fixed and everyone has had an opportunity to check out a new chapter in this beloved saga. And if not, then perhaps it’s time to get rid of those Amazon Fire Sticks, huh?
House of the Dragon premiere doubles the ratings of Stranger Things
Some of the crashes were surely precipitated by high demand. And even though it’s early — the episode hasn’t even been out 24 hours — analytics firm Samba TV is already releasing some data on how well it did.
And apparently it did pretty well! According to Samba TV, “The Heirs of the Dragon” generated the highest viewership for any premium cable or streaming premiere in 2022, bringing in 2.6 million households in the U.S. in its first six hours of availability. That’s over double what Netflix brought in for the season 4 premiere of Stranger Things back in May.
So the show is off to a good start! We’ll be here breaking down each new episode every Wednesday.
Next. Don’t worry, House of the Dragon will have an opening credits sequence. dark
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