Liputan6.com, Jakarta - Crunchyroll, a subscription-based on-demand video streaming platform popular with anime fans, experienced a significant global service outage on Monday, January 26, 2026.
This made thousands of users worldwide unable to access their favorite content.
Advertisement
The outage was first reported around 2:15 PM ET (Eastern Time) or 11:35 AM PST (Pacific Standard Time) and lasted for approximately three hours.
At its peak, outage tracking sites like Downdetector recorded over 9,000 problem reports within minutes, with some reporting over 40,000 reports from affected users.
The incident did not affect a single region; it was global, with complaints coming in from users in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Although the service appeared to be stabilizing by Tuesday morning, January 27, 2026, some users were still reporting minor issues disrupting their viewing experience.
Crunchyroll Global Outage Hits Anime Fans
On Monday, January 26, 2026, the Crunchyroll platform experienced an outage that crippled access for millions of anime fans worldwide.
Reports of issues began flooding service monitoring sites around 11:35 a.m. PST, with the number of reports rapidly increasing.
The impact of the Crunchyroll outage was widespread, not limited to a single continent.
Users across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia reported difficulties accessing the anime streaming service.
Several problem reports reached tens of thousands on Downdetector.
Although Crunchyroll's official status page indicated that all systems were operating normally during parts of the outage, the reality on the ground showed otherwise for many users.
Technical Issues and Impact on the Crunchyroll User
Crunchyroll users reported a range of technical issues that disrupted their viewing experience.
The most common complaints included video playback failures and difficulty connecting to the service.
Many users complained of videos freezing mid-episode, endless buffering, unexpected logouts, and even errors misrepresenting their subscription status.
Some users also encountered problems logging into their accounts or experienced significant drops in video quality.
While the exact cause of the outage has not been officially confirmed, several reports indicate server issues and video errors, likely due to the platform struggling with heavy traffic.
Anticipation of Anime Season
Crunchyroll's outage occurred at a particularly sensitive time, in the middle of the Winter 2026 anime season.
This season features highly anticipated popular titles like Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 and Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, which typically attract millions of concurrent viewers.
Expectations for a seamless service have been even higher, especially after Crunchyroll discontinued its free ad-supported service and pushed users to premium subscriptions.
As of Tuesday morning, January 27, 2026, Crunchyroll's service gradually stabilized.
However, some users are still reporting "phantom" issues such as subtitles failing to load or the app requiring multiple restarts to fully connect.