Did the Sphere in Las Vegas show a "blue screen of death" or "BSoD" on July 19, 2024, during the global Windows outages caused by a CrowdStrike software defect? No, that's not true: The image on social media that makes this claim is doctored and has been circulating on the internet since at least 2023. The post also erroneously said the Sphere is in Los Angeles, not Las Vegas.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, on July 19, 2024. It said:
Los Angeles Sphere ...
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri Jul 19 16:01:15 2024 UTC)
The account falsely claimed the image with the BSoD showing was of the "Los Angeles Sphere." The Sphere is in Las Vegas, Nevada, as the website (archived here) notes.
The image is not current and does not depict the Sphere amid the CrowdStrike outage that began on July 19, 2024. Casino.org published the same photo in an article (archived here) in October 2023 titled, "VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Videos Never Displayed on the Sphere," noting the image was shared in June 2023:
First shared in early June, a month before the Sphere opened, this image purports to show the Sphere displaying a Microsoft Windows error message, aka 'the blue screen of death,' instructing the operator that the computer needs restarting. It's a shame Sphere programmers didn't think of this themselves. It would have made a hysterical April Fool's prank. (Image: Twitter)
This screenshot from the 2023 Casino.org article shows the same image as the one posted on X:
(Source: Casino.org screenshot taken on Fri Jul 19 16:15:22 2024 UTC)
As NBC News reported (archived here), the Blue Screen of Death was seen on computers around the world on July 19, 2024, following the CrowdStrike update glitch.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims about widespread systems outages can be read here.
