If you found yourself staring at a ‘Server Connection Error’ instead of the latest seasonal simulcast yesterday, you weren’t alone.
Crunchyroll, the world’s primary hub for anime, suffered a significant global outage starting Monday, January 26, leaving tens of thousands of users unable to access the service.
According to data from Downdetector, reports began spiking around 11:35 a.m. PST, eventually peaking with over 40,000 users flagging issues. The disruption wasn’t localized, either; fans across North America, Europe, South America, and Australia all reported similar failures, ranging from infinite buffering to being logged out of their accounts entirely.
The outage comes at a particularly sensitive time for the platform. We are currently in the heat of the Winter 2026 season, which features massive draws like Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.
For many, these weekly drops are “appointment viewing,” and the inability to stream the latest episodes has reignited long-standing frustrations regarding the platform’s stability following its merger with Funimation.
Adding to the tension is the fact that Crunchyroll recently phased out its free, ad-supported tier. With more users now paying for premium access, the expectation for a seamless service has never been higher.
As of Tuesday morning, January 27, services appear to be stabilizing. While the official Crunchyroll status page shows “Up and Running” for most regions, some users on social media are still reporting “ghost” issues, such as subtitles failing to load or apps requiring multiple restarts to connect.
If you’re still having trouble, the standard fixes apply:
– Update the App: Check for any hotfixes pushed to your device overnight.
– Check Local Cache: Clearing your browser cache or re-installing the app on consoles has helped some users bypass the “login loop.”
Crunchyroll has yet to release a detailed post-mortem on what caused the “meltdown,” but for now, the orange gates appear to be open once again.
