‘House of the Dragon’ Premiere Crashes HBO Apps for ‘Game of Thrones’ Fans

HBO seems to have another massive hit on their hands, so much so that the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon premiere crashed HBO Max Sunday night. Years after millions of eyes were drawn to the platform throughout the original series’ eight-season run, and following months of buildup, the House Targaryen-centered series got off to a bit of a rough start as thousands of HBO Max subscribers reported issues with the service.

According to service-monitoring site Downdetector, reports of issues with HBO Max peaked at 3,784 just after 9 p.m. ET Sunday evening, minutes after House of the Dragon premiered. Subscribers attempting to watch the premiere episode reported that the HBO Max app was “crashing” or simply “not available” when they attempted to access it, with one person reporting that there was a “failure to launch” and the app was “crashing mid-show.” On Twitter, one person reported that they received a “title not available” error message when they attempted to play the episode, with another reporting that the app “would crash” when they tried to play the episode. The issues seemed to mostly affect those using an Amazon Fire TV platform or a Fire Stick, with complaints surfacing on numerous social media platforms.

The only thing that could tear down the House of the Dragon was itself. #HOTD

— Max (@StreamOnMax) August 22, 2022

“House of the Dragon is being successfully viewed by millions of HBO Max subscribers this evening,” HBO Max said in a statement shared with Deadline. “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.”

Thankfully, the issues now seem to be resolved, with Downdetector showing issues quickly flatlining from the peak of 3,784 reports at 9:06 p.m. to less than 1,000 reports by 9:21 p.m. As of the most recent update, there are less than 50 current reports of issues with HBO Max.

Based on George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, House of the Dragon acts as a sequel to Game of Thrones, which ended in May 2019. The series is set approximately 200 years before the events of the main series and focuses on House Targaryen’s rule over Westeros, starting with its high point and extending into one of its darkest chapters. The show stars Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno, and Rhys Ifans, among others. New episodes air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO Max. The series’ 10-episode debut season is set to conclude on Oct. 23.