Super Bowl 2019: Reddit breaks amid outrage over ‘worst halftime show in history’

Outage appeared to start just as Maroon 5 and Travis Scott left the stage

Reddit broke right as the world started to complain about a Super Bowl halftime show that has been referred to as the worst in history.

Thousands of people complained that the site had gone down, just as performers including Maroon 5 and Travis Scott left the stage. The outage continued as the game began, preventing people from discussing the game as it went on.

The site was hit by major outages for more than an hour, beginning just as the halftime show happened, according to the site Down Detector. Most of the issues were reported in the US, though that is probably because the Super Bowl happened during the night in the rest of the world.

Reddit confirmed the issue on a Twitter page devoted to updates on its status. Shortly after, it said it had identified a fix and then confirmed it had been resolved, around two hours after the problems first began.

Many users complained that the outage had stopped them from discussing – and complaining about – the controversial halftime show. Maroon 5's performance was widely criticised by fans, who said the event had been "boring" and that it had failed to deal with ongoing discussions about the NFL's treatment of Colin Kaepernick.

Some even speculated that the outpouring of boredom and anger had been the cause of the issues. Reddit did not confirm the nature of the issue or how it had been fixed.

And yet more complained that they had missed out on a chance to discuss the appearance of Spongebob Squarepants in the show. That animated interlude was the result of an online campaign to have the character appear in the show – one that was helped along with the support of Reddit users.

In the game itself – during some of which Reddit was also offline – the New England Patriots beat the Los Angeles Rams in the lowest-scoring Super Bowl in history.