What Websites Are Down Right Now? Latest on AWS Outage Impacting Apps and Services Worldwide

Millions of users across the world faced disruptions on Monday, October 20, 2025, as Amazon Web Services (AWS) — one of the largest cloud hosting platforms — went offline due to a critical database failure. The outage, which began shortly after 3:00 a.m. ET, caused major websites, apps, and essential online tools to crash or slow down, leaving users frustrated and businesses scrambling.

Despite AWS stating it has “fully mitigated” the root cause, several services continue to experience degraded performance and connectivity issues. From popular social media apps like Snapchat and Reddit to financial platforms and government websites, the widespread disruption highlights how dependent modern digital infrastructure is on cloud services.

Global Internet Disruption: What Happened to AWS?

AWS first reported the issue at 3:11 a.m. ET, citing an “operational issue” affecting 14 different services at its U.S.-East-1 Region center in northern Virginia. The outage stemmed from a failure in Amazon’s EC2 internal network, impacting critical services like DynamoDB, SQS, and Amazon Connect. According to the company, the problem was tied to a malfunction in an internal subsystem responsible for monitoring network load balancers — key technology that directs traffic across servers.

The ripple effect was immediate and global. Over 6.5 million outage reports flooded Downdetector, with users unable to access more than 1,000 services. Popular platforms including Snapchat, Roblox, Fortnite, and Amazon Ring doorbells went offline. Messaging app Signal also suffered, prompting warnings from Article 19, a digital rights group, about the democratic risks of over-reliance on a single cloud provider.

“These disruptions are not just technical issues, they’re democratic failures,” said Corinne Cath-Speth, head of digital at Article 19. “When one provider goes dark, secure communication apps, media outlets, and vital digital infrastructure stop functioning.”

Even essential services weren’t spared. Medicare’s open enrollment website was inaccessible, and the UK government’s HM Revenue and Customs portal was down for many users. Airlines like United and Delta reported delays, and Starbucks, McDonald’s, and T-Mobile all experienced outages. Major media outlets, including The New York Times and The Associated Press, were also affected, with AP switching to its backup news delivery system.

While AWS said the root cause was resolved by 6:35 a.m. ET, issues persisted well into the morning. By 10:14 a.m., the company admitted there were still “significant API errors and connectivity issues.” To manage load, AWS began limiting new activity requests as it worked to restore full service.

Which Apps and Websites Are Still Down?

As of late Monday evening, many services are gradually recovering, but several remain partially down or unstable. Reddit continues to report “degraded performance,” with users seeing “too many requests” errors. Snapchat users say they’re still unable to log in, view group chats, or send snaps.

Strava, a popular fitness tracking app, is stuck processing activities, while Garmin Connect is failing to upload workouts. Other major platforms still experiencing disruptions include:

Major apps and services still affected:

• Amazon, Amazon Prime, Alexa, Amazon Music
• Snapchat, Reddit, Signal
• Roblox, Fortnite, Pokémon GO, Brawl Stars, Clash Royale
• Coinbase, Venmo, Robinhood
• Duolingo, MyFitnessPal, Peloton
• Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Connect, PlayStation Network, Xbox Network
• Zoom, Slack, Trello, Atlassian, Jira, Smartsheet
• GOV.UK, HMRC, Medicare
• Bank of Scotland, Lloyds, Halifax
• BT, Vodafone, EE
• IMDb, Ring, Blink Security
• Wordle, Tidal, Asana, Life360, Perplexity

Some companies like Lloyds Banking Group report that services are “coming back online,” but AWS has warned that requests made before and during the outage still need to be processed — meaning delays could continue.

The Bigger Picture: What the AWS Outage Tells Us

This is not the first time AWS has suffered a large-scale outage. Similar incidents occurred in 2021 and 2023, each time underscoring how a single company’s technical failure can disrupt global digital infrastructure. With AWS powering everything from banking platforms and airline systems to streaming services and healthcare portals, the consequences of downtime are far-reaching.

Monday’s outage also reignites debates about the concentration of cloud services among a few major providers. Experts argue that reliance on a handful of companies creates systemic risks, where a single point of failure can halt communication, commerce, and even government operations.

Despite its challenges, AWS remains a crucial part of the internet’s backbone. In 2024 alone, it generated $107 billion in revenue — around 17% of Amazon’s total — and is rapidly expanding into artificial intelligence. But as digital society becomes more cloud-dependent, calls for redundancy and regulatory oversight are growing louder.

For now, AWS says most systems are stabilizing, but full restoration could take more time. Users should expect lingering issues as backlogged requests are processed and services gradually return to normal.

FYI (keeping you in the loop)-

Q1: What websites are down right now?

Major services like Snapchat, Reddit, Signal, Strava, and Roblox are still affected. Banking apps, government sites, and cloud-based business tools also face disruptions.

Q2: Has Amazon Web Services fixed the outage?

AWS says the root issue has been mitigated, but many services continue to experience degraded performance and slow recovery as backlogged requests are processed.

Q3: Why did AWS go down?

The outage was caused by a failure in Amazon’s EC2 internal network, tied to an internal subsystem monitoring network load balancers. This affected multiple AWS services.

Q4: How many services were impacted?

Over 1,000 websites and apps were affected globally, according to Downdetector, with more than 6.5 million outage reports during the peak of the disruption.

Q5: When will everything return to normal?

Most services are recovering, but AWS has not provided a precise timeline. Delays may continue as the company processes queued requests and restores full functionality.