Disney+ Hotstar buckled under a deluge Friday as 10 million Indians jammed the app for the India-Australia T20 decider, triggering widespread crashes and buffering woes that turned Gabba glory into glitchy grief. At 1:30 PM IST, when Abhishek Sharma edged his first boundary, screens froze nationwide—from Kolkata call centers to Kerala classrooms—forcing frantic refreshes. "Mid-over blackout—Hotstar, fix this!" raged Twitter user @CricketFanatic92, one of 500,000 complaints flooding support chats.
Engineers scrambled at Disney's Mumbai ops, attributing the snarl to a 300% traffic surge from Hindi commentary feeds. "We're scaling servers live—sorry for the hiccup," tweeted Hotstar India head Gaurav Gandhi, promising free premium trials. In Bengaluru's Koramangala pubs, groups huddled around glitchy TVs, switching to radio for Sundar's wickets. "Paid Rs 299 for this? Unacceptable," fumed IT exec Priya Rao, 29, mid-refresh marathon.
The outage echoed 2023 ODI World Cup woes, but Jio Hotstar's shadow loomed—Reliance's merger tease hinted at unified streams by December, blending Jio's bandwidth with Disney's library. Early tests showed 20% smoother loads, per beta users. Fans like Delhi's Arjun Mehta, 24, pivoted to YouTube highlights: "Free clips save the day, but live's the thrill."
As play resumed post-drizzle, Hotstar stabilized at 8 million streams, but trust dipped—app ratings slipped to 3.2. Gandhi vowed: "Decider deserves crystal-clear." From crashes to comebacks, the surge spotlights streaming's high-stakes sprint.
