diff --git a/posthog/session_recordings/realtime_snapshots.py b/posthog/session_recordings/realtime_snapshots.py
index e1191c4ddb37e..5068fa8fa994a 100644
--- a/posthog/session_recordings/realtime_snapshots.py
+++ b/posthog/session_recordings/realtime_snapshots.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 PUBLISHED_REALTIME_SUBSCRIPTIONS_COUNTER = Counter(
     "realtime_snapshots_published_subscription_counter",
     "When the API is serving snapshot requests and wants to receive snapshots via a redis subscription.",
-    labelnames=["team_id", "session_id", "attempt_count"],
+    labelnames=["attempt_count"],
 )
 
 REALTIME_SUBSCRIPTIONS_LOADED_COUNTER = Counter(
@@ -23,27 +23,49 @@
     labelnames=["attempt_count"],
 )
 
+
 SUBSCRIPTION_CHANNEL = "@posthog/replay/realtime-subscriptions"
-ATTEMPT_MAX = 10
-ATTEMPT_TIMEOUT_SECONDS = 5
+
+ATTEMPT_MAX = 6
+ATTEMPT_TIMEOUT_SECONDS = 0.1
 
 
 def get_key(team_id: str, suffix: str) -> str:
     return f"@posthog/replay/snapshots/team-{team_id}/{suffix}"
 
 
-def get_realtime_snapshots(team_id: str, session_id: str, attempt_count=0) -> Optional[List[Dict]]:
+def publish_subscription(team_id: str, session_id: str) -> None:
+    """
+    Publishing a subscription notifies each instance of Mr Blobby of the request for realtime playback
+    Only zero or one instances will be handling the session, if they are, they will start publishing
+    the snapshot data to Redis so that it can be played before the data has been sent to blob storage
+    """
     try:
         redis = get_client(settings.SESSION_RECORDING_REDIS_URL)
-        key = get_key(team_id, session_id)
-        encoded_snapshots = redis.zrange(key, 0, -1, withscores=True)
-
-        # We always publish as it could be that a rebalance has occured and the consumer doesn't know it should be
-        # sending data to redis
         redis.publish(
             SUBSCRIPTION_CHANNEL,
             json.dumps({"team_id": team_id, "session_id": session_id}),
         )
+    except Exception as e:
+        capture_exception(
+            e,
+            extras={
+                "operation": "publish_realtime_subscription",
+            },
+            tags={"team_id": team_id, "session_id": session_id},
+        )
+        raise e
+
+
+def get_realtime_snapshots(team_id: str, session_id: str, attempt_count=0) -> Optional[List[Dict]]:
+    try:
+        redis = get_client(settings.SESSION_RECORDING_REDIS_URL)
+        key = get_key(team_id, session_id)
+        encoded_snapshots = redis.zrange(key, 0, -1, withscores=True)
+
+        # We always publish as it could be that a rebalance has occurred
+        # and the consumer doesn't know it should be sending data to redis
+        publish_subscription(team_id, session_id)
 
         if not encoded_snapshots and attempt_count < ATTEMPT_MAX:
             logger.info(
@@ -52,16 +74,12 @@ def get_realtime_snapshots(team_id: str, session_id: str, attempt_count=0) -> Op
                 session_id=session_id,
                 attempt_count=attempt_count,
             )
-            # If we don't have it we could be in the process of getting it and syncing it
-            redis.publish(
-                SUBSCRIPTION_CHANNEL,
-                json.dumps({"team_id": team_id, "session_id": session_id}),
-            )
-            PUBLISHED_REALTIME_SUBSCRIPTIONS_COUNTER.labels(
-                team_id=team_id, session_id=session_id, attempt_count=attempt_count
-            ).inc()
 
-            sleep(ATTEMPT_TIMEOUT_SECONDS / ATTEMPT_MAX)
+            PUBLISHED_REALTIME_SUBSCRIPTIONS_COUNTER.labels(attempt_count=attempt_count).inc()
+
+            # this means we'll sleep 0.1, 0.1, 0,1, 0.2, 0.2, 0.2
+            # for a total of 0.9 seconds
+            sleep(ATTEMPT_TIMEOUT_SECONDS if attempt_count < 4 else ATTEMPT_TIMEOUT_SECONDS * 2)
             return get_realtime_snapshots(team_id, session_id, attempt_count + 1)
 
         if encoded_snapshots:
diff --git a/posthog/session_recordings/session_recording_api.py b/posthog/session_recordings/session_recording_api.py
index 915fbc83d68ba..31fe842a5ba2d 100644
--- a/posthog/session_recordings/session_recording_api.py
+++ b/posthog/session_recordings/session_recording_api.py
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@
     ClickHouseSustainedRateThrottle,
 )
 from posthog.session_recordings.queries.session_replay_events import SessionReplayEvents
-from posthog.session_recordings.realtime_snapshots import get_realtime_snapshots
+from posthog.session_recordings.realtime_snapshots import get_realtime_snapshots, publish_subscription
 from posthog.session_recordings.snapshots.convert_legacy_snapshots import (
     convert_original_version_lts_recording,
 )
@@ -379,6 +379,11 @@ def snapshots(self, request: request.Request, **kwargs):
                         "end_timestamp": None,
                     }
                 )
+                # the UI will use this to try to load realtime snapshots
+                # so, we can publish the request for Mr. Blobby to start syncing to Redis now
+                # it takes a short while for the subscription to be sync'd into redis
+                # let's use the network round trip time to get started
+                publish_subscription(team_id=str(self.team.pk), session_id=str(recording.session_id))
 
             response_data["sources"] = sources