Apple TV outage: This new TV series may be the reason for streaming platform crashing for hours

Apple’s streaming service, Apple TV, experienced downtime for some users for a few hours. The outage began shortly after the release of the new series Pluribus, created by the producer of Breaking Bad.

Users across the US and Canada started to report that the service was crashing around 10:30 p.m. ET on November 6, shortly after the first two episodes of the anticipated drama became available for streaming. Reports surged to nearly 13,000 on Downdetector before Apple acknowledged the outage on its status pages, noting it was investigating the issue. The company also reported problems with its Apple Music and Apple Arcade services.The downtime comes at a challenging time for Apple, which promoted Pluribus as a major exclusive attraction in a competitive streaming market against rivals like Netflix and Hulu. Apple's services division, which includes Apple TV, recorded $28.8 billion in sales in the September quarter and is a key area for the company's growth in subscriber services.

How the Apple TV outage affected users in US and Canada

The Apple TV outage left many users unable to stream content.

Reports surged on Downdetector, with 64% citing server connection issues, 34% reporting app problems, and 2% experiencing download errors in the US. Affected areas included Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis.Apple acknowledged the outage and said it was investigating to restore full functionality. Some users noted partial recovery but continued to face intermittent issues. Many encountered the common “problem loading this content” error, indicating server communication failures.Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman also took to X to report the outage. Sharing a screenshot of the disrupted platform, he wrote, “Apple TV goes down on premier night of new show Pluribus. Many users reporting the issue. Haven’t seen the service go down like this before.”"Apple says outage is impacting TV, Music and Arcade and it’s investigating the issue," Gurman added.

Last month, Apple also experienced a major outage affecting several online services, including Apple TV, Apple Music, and the App Store.

At that time, users reported being unable to stream content, listen to their music libraries, or download apps for several hours. During the disruption, Apple TV users received a “There’s a problem loading this content” error, cutting off shows like The Studio and Severance mid-episode. Some users also faced problems with TestFlight, the Apple Games app, and iCloud storage access. Apple later confirmed that the issues had been resolved.