HBO Max 'goes down' as The Last Of Us debuts sparking fan fury

HBO Max customers weren't very happy with the streaming service over the weekend, as the service appeared to buckle under the stress of The Last Of Us season premiere.

The hugely-anticipated videogame adaptation, The Last Of Us had its US debut on Sunday, January 15, with the season premiere establishing the world of this post-apocalyptic story and setting our main characters, Joel and Ellie (played by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey) off on their quest. However, it sounds like plenty of fans missed out on the opportunity to join in on the excitement right as it hit HBO Max.

HBO marked the occasion on social media to confirm that the first episode was available to stream on HBO Max, but this post was met with a series of responses from frustrated fans who were complaining that the streaming service was experiencing some issues. 

Users were very quick to reach out with screenshots of error messages, jokes about the HBO Max servers, or just straight complaints that the series would not play for whatever reason. The fact that these issues came just days after HBO Max saw a minor price hike likely didn't help matters, either. 

Thankfully, viewers who were able to tune in at the time were at least full of praise for what they'd seen! Responses from happy viewers included high praise like "It was amazing! I am so glad it turned out to be what it was!", "I watched it. I need more." and "ITS SO GOOD OMG def did an amazing job so far."

This isn't the first time HBO Max has had this issue, either, as some viewers reported similar problems during the season premiere of House of the Dragon last summer, even though "millions of HBO Max subscribers" were indeed able to stream the opening episode at the time, according to HBO's Chris Willard (quote via Variety).

The Last Of Us continues Sundays at 9 pm ET on HBO and HBO Max and Mondays at 2 am and 9 pm GMT on Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK.

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