Is Netflix Down? Here’s What Really Happened

If you were trying to chill with Netflix on the night of May 29 and suddenly got hit with the dreaded message “This title is not available to watch instantly”, you definitely weren’t alone.

I was literally about to start rewatching Breaking Bad when boom — nothing worked. Not on my laptop, not on my phone, not even on my smart TV. Just that same, annoying error popping up no matter what I clicked.

Turns out, Netflix had a major outage across the United States, and it hit hard.

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What Was the Error?

The message was the same for most users:
“This title is not available to watch instantly. Please try another title.”

At first, I thought maybe my Wi-Fi was tripping or I needed to restart my router. But a quick scroll through X (formerly Twitter) showed me this was way bigger. Everyone from anime fans to rom-com lovers was posting screenshots and venting about not being able to stream anything.

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One frustrated user posted, “Netflix just crashed and burned in me watching anime…. Won’t work on any device.” Another chimed in with, “I’m getting that same message on everything I try to watch — on all my devices.”

It wasn’t just you. It was all of us.

How Bad Was the Outage?

According to DownDetector, a website that tracks real-time online outages, there were over 75,000 complaints by 9:40 PM EDT. That’s wild. Like, Super Bowl blackout levels of wild. And it didn’t matter what device you were using — phones, tablets, smart TVs, gaming consoles — everything was down.

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Check out the live outage report here on DownDetector.

What’s Usually the Cause of That Message?

Normally, when Netflix throws that message up, it’s just a local issue. Maybe your app needs an update or the device cache got weird. Netflix’s support site even says the error is usually caused by problems with data stored on your device. But let’s be real — this wasn’t your Roku acting up.

The fact that tens of thousands of users were seeing the exact same issue at the exact same time? That screams server-side problem — something on Netflix’s end went sideways.

If you’re curious, Netflix’s official help article about this error is available here.

Netflix’s Response?

So far, there hasn’t been a super detailed statement from Netflix. But folks who contacted support were reportedly told it was a “known issue” and that engineers were working on it. Most users saw things start working again later that night, but man, it definitely left a lot of us annoyed.

Let’s be honest — Netflix is our go-to for winding down after a long day. And when it crashes like that? Yeah, it hits different. Especially when you’re mid-binge or right at the twist in a docuseries.