BURBANK, Calif.—Disney+ is only a little more than 24 hours old, but it’s been quite the start for the brand new streaming service. The much anticipated platform that features Disney classics, Marvel and Star Wars movies as well as original programming exceeded even The Walt Disney Company’s expectations with first-day sign ups, but with that came a few bumps in the road.
DownDetector, a company that tracks outages for telecom and streaming companies, registered more than 8,000 trouble reports early morning on Nov. 12 in the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands. Some subscribers weren’t able to login, experienced playability issues and some were not able to access all or specific content.
“The consumer demand for Disney+ has exceeded our high expectations,” Disney said in a statement. “We are pleased by this incredible response and are working to quickly resolve the current user issues. We appreciate your patience.”
Most of Tuesday afternoon saw a decrease in reported issues to under 1,000, according to DownDetector, though it peaked over 2,000 around 8 p.m. As of Wednesday morning, fewer than 300 issues were being reported.
Beyond subscribers’ ability to access the new streaming service, it also saw its first instance of pirating. After concerns were expressed about pirating of Disney+’s original content, specifically the Star Wars series “The Mandalorian,” it came to fruition as the first episodes of “The Mandalorian” were pirated within three hours of the platform’s launch, according to Comparitech.
Most of the torrenting of the show came from Spain and the U.K.—countries that will not see the launch of Disney+ until 2020—though some originated in the U.S. and Canada.
