Skip to main content

Battlefield 6, Fortnite, and other games and services recover as the AWS outage that took out the likes of Roblox, Wordle, and Epic Games Store finally comes to an end

AWS was down, affecting gamers

AWS re:Invent 2022 logo sign
(Image: © Future / Mike Moore)

An enormous Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage had a huge impact across the internet yesterday, and gaming did not escape the damage.

Games of all types, from Fortnite to Wordle to Roblox were affected by the AWS outage. Problems started at about 7.30am BST (that's 2.30am ET) yesterday, October 20, when gaming services started having huge spikes on the outage-detecting website Downdetector.

Latest news

Refresh

Well, that was exciting, wasn't it? I mean, in a largely awful way, of course.

While hours have passed since the initial start of AWS updates and a few hours since Amazon's most recent update, we'll paste that below. It seems that many issues with both Battlefield, Fortnite, Epic Games, and Roblox have improved – though it's not a complete fix.

Hello there – Jacob Krol here, and we're still seeing reports of outages and persistent issues with Battlefield 6, according to Down Detector. Since the last update, at 1:54PM ET, there are still over 1,000 reports for the title on the site.

And with that, I'm off

Battlefield 6 still being temperamental

Battlefield 6 coming and going

Battlefield 6 latest...

A picture of Battlefield 6's loading screen on a monitor

(Image credit: Future/EA)

OK, it did look bad when we just checked Battlefield 6, and while we were actually able to join a game, it's now hanging again and failing!

Looks like it could be a bad time to be an online Battlefield 6 player...

Uh oh, looks like Battlefield 6 might be affected...

A screenshot from downdetector showing the Battlefield 6 spike

(Image credit: Downdetector)

As per the above screenshot taken from Downdetector it appears that Battlefield 6 may be being affected by today's outage - suddenly, and on a massive scale!

I will try to check this out imminently to confirm either way from what I can experience, but definitely something to be aware of.

We're not out of the woods yet, perhaps

Other major stores and services seem fine

It's a bit slow for us, but Fortnite is back...

It appears as though Fortnite may be back...

OK, it looks as though Fortnite may be on the return!

The official Fortnite Status account on X / Twitter, has stated that players should be able to log in and matchmake with issue after the service provider outage has been "resolved".

The full statement is above but things could be on the up now...

AWS update

Fortnite is still very much down

Elsewhere it looks like Reddit is having real trouble...

You can follow that outage and get all the latest information here: Massive AWS outage takes down Reddit, Snapchat, Alexa, Ring and much of the internet – all the latest updates live

That last post about Fortnite is still backed up by the latest statement from the official Fortnite Status X / Twitter page, by the way. See that below:

Fortnite remains down though...

Fortnite error screen

(Image credit: Future/Epic Games)

It looks as though the huge battle royale game that is Fortnite is still down, however.

The above screenshot was from a few minutes ago, and taken by a colleague of mine showing that it is still impossible to sign in for some folks.

We might be past the worst of it, folks

Roblox looks to have recovered

Same goes for Lost Ark...

Lost Ark twitter account update

(Image credit: Amazon)

Unsurprisingly, the same goes for Amazon's other big game, Lost Ark, with the official X / Twitter account offering an almost identical statement acknowledging the problems.

If you play Amazon games, you may be hit hard...

Throne and Liberty twitter account update

(Image credit: Amazon)

Perhaps somewhat predictably, if you're someone who plays Amazon games it looks like you're being hit hard right now.

The above image is from the Throne and Liberty X / Twitter account, and remains the latest update on the game which appears to acknowledge widespread problems for players trying to login and play...

Phew! Wordle is back…

A woman sitting in a living room stares at a phone in confusion

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Wordle was badly hit by the AWS outage earlier, but appears to be back online now.

Though the page itself – hosted on the New York Times' gaming site – loaded, it wouldn't let users log in, meaning they wouldn't be able to extend their all-important streaks.

The site now seems to be working normally, so you can go ahead and get your daily fix. (And if you need help, make sure you check out our Wordle today page for hints and discussion of the game.)

Thanks for the above update to our Global Editor-in-Chief, and Wordle warlock, Marc McLaren!

Cannot go fast right now in Sonic...

A screenshot of the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds log in error

(Image credit: Sega)

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has been affected by the AWS outage too with my colleague Rhys sharing this screenshot showing that the connection to the server is just failing.

An update from AWS

PS Network seems fine...

PlayStation Network status screen

(Image credit: Sony/PlayStation)

In slightly better news, the PlayStation Network seems to be fine - at least for me and many others, despite there being some reports of outages.

From my testing however, the store, games, and PS direct, and all my account gumpf is fine - thankfully.

Epic Games Store error screen

(Image credit: Future/Epic Games Store)

Fortnite massively affected

Fortnite login error screen

(Image credit: Future/Epic Games Store)

One of the very biggest games in the world has been affected by the AWS outage: Fortnite is currently down for many.

My colleague Rhys just sent me the above screenshot showing that he just flat-out cannot sign in to the game.

The error reads: "Unable to sign in to your account for online services. Please try again later."

Gaming services hit by massive AWS outage