Apple TV experienced a brief disruption on November 7 when the streamer went down for thousands of users across the U.S. and Canada, and the timing couldn’t have been worse. Just minutes after the premiere of its highly hyped new drama Pluribus, viewers started flooding social media with complaints about playback errors and server crashes.
Reports started coming in around 10:30 p.m. ET, leaving fans frustrated and Apple scrambling to respond. Luckily, the issue was fixed within a few hours, but not before the outage stole some of Pluribus’s opening-night spotlight.
Is Apple TV down?
For a short period on Thursday night, Apple TV experienced a significant crash, no minor hiccup. According to Downdetector, nearly 15,000 users reported issues, mainly across the U.S. and Canada.
Apple’s own status page later confirmed that Apple TV, Apple Music, and Apple Arcade were all affected, indicating a broader outage across its entertainment lineup. The problem was especially rough in cities like L.A., Houston, Chicago, and Minneapolis, where frustrated fans took to X (formerly Twitter) to vent about the sudden blackout.
Downdetector’s data showed that about 64% of users were experiencing server connection problems, 34% encountered app glitches, and another 2% were unable to download anything at all. The crash also occurred just as Pluribus, a brand-new thriller from the creator of Breaking Bad, dropped exclusively on Apple TV. (via Livemint)
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman even posted on X, saying, “Apple TV goes down on the premier night of the new show Pluribus. Many users are reporting the issue. Haven’t seen the service go down like this before.“
The brief outage occurred just as Apple was doubling down on its streaming strategy, which generated a massive $28.8 billion in revenue last quarter. Apple TV has built a reputation for delivering top-tier shows, including Ted Lasso, Severance, The Morning Show, and Slow Horses, all for $9.99 per month or as part of the Apple One bundle.
While the glitch didn’t last long, it was a reminder that even the biggest streamers can stumble when millions log in at once. It also showed just how crucial Apple’s services, like TV and iCloud, have become to the company’s bottom line.
Originally reported by Rishabh Shandilya on ComingSoon.
