HBO Max servers crash ahead of Mare of Easttown finale
At the start of the big episode of the Kate Winslet drama tonight, the servers for the streaming service sputtered and eventually failed for many people. As you would imagine, this led to a LOT of unhappy people online. It’s also not the first time that HBO has struggled with a sudden influx of traffic for a big episode — they previously had this problem multiple times during the final season of Game of Thrones. We know that it can be challenging having millions of viewers logging on to your service at the same time — it’s a good problem to have, but still a problem that you need to solve.
To us, one of the things that is the most interesting about this crash is that typically, Memorial Day Weekend is not a time for in-demand television. It’s a total surprise that this many people would be interested in a broadcast of something right when it’s available! Yet, this is a further reminder of just how popular Mare of Easttown has become over time. It’s improved its linear audience every week since the premiere, and that doesn’t account for anyone who streams the show. We know that people have been binge-watching the show over the past several episodes.
If there is a silver lining here, it’s mostly that viewers on HBO Max won’t miss anything — they’ll just be a little bit behind everyone who chooses to watch the show on HBO itself. In other words, they gotta stay off of the internet for a short period of time to avoid spoilers.
When will it be back?
At about 10:25 p.m. Eastern, we started hearing reports of it functioning again. Hopefully, more viewers will be able to start watching the finale shortly. -Matt
Were you effective by HBO Max outages during the Mare of Easttown finale?
Be sure to share right now in the comments, and also come back around for some other news. (Photo: HBO Max.)