Soccer fans watching World Cup matches on WatchESPN experienced several types of disappointment Thursday morning when the live-streaming site temporarily succumbed to technical issues during the U.S. Men’s painful one-nil defeat to Germany.
“WatchESPN set a record 1.7 million peak concurrent viewers. There were minor issues at the start of the match,” ESPN said in a statement to TheWrap. “The internet has rarely been tested like this for a sporting event.”
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The match was available on other online streaming services, though, and at least one of WatchESPN’s competitors reported high viewership without any technical difficulties.
A Univison spokesperson told TheWrap, “Univision Digital broke records today delivering 750,000 live concurrent streams for the USA vs. Germany match.”
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One viewer tweeted:
Anyone else Having issues connecting to the Watch ESPN app? #worldcup #USAvsGER
— Allan Alivio (@theDOO619) June 26, 2014
It’s unclear precisely how many people encountered issues while watching the U.S. men get shut out, but ESPN — like the USA team — will have a chance at redemption.
Even though they lost, the USA earned enough points with a previous victory over Ghana and a tie with Portugal — in a game that saw 18.9 million viewers glued to their TVs — to advance them to the World Cup’s knockout round.
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WatchESPN’s technical difficulties likely annoyed many passionate fans though we doubt Ann Coulter was inconvenienced. As TheWrap reported earlier, the conservative pundit blames the internationally embraced sport for her country’s moral decay.
Next up for the men is a match against Group H’s first-place team, possibly Belgium, on July 1, in Salvador, Brazil.
Hopefully WatchESPN will be adequately prepared.
Tim Kenneally contributed to this report.