An unexpected Netflix outage temporarily stymied unspecified numbers of members trying to stream television shows in the United States, Mexico and Brazil.

Vexed users turned to Twitter, where a message posted by the California-based company in the early evening said it was aware of "streaming issues on some devices" and was working to fix the problems.

About an hour later, Netflix fired off a tweet saying the trouble had been resolved and thanking people for their patience.

Netflix did not reply to an AFP inquiry regarding the extent and cause of the outage.

Exchanges posted at customer support account @Netflixhelps indicated the trouble interfered with show streaming in Brazil and Mexico, as well as in the United States.

"Our hamster just fell off its wheel," Netflix tech support said playfully while responding to a member on Twitter.

"Our geeks are working to put him back to running!"

Netflix is the world's largest video streaming on-demand service by subscription, with a presence in over 60 countries and the aim to be in all markets of the world by the end of 2016.

Netflix said in October that its global membership grew to 69.17 million as it gears for further expansion.