When millions of users around the world woke up on Monday morning, October 20, 2025, they found their favorite apps and services completely unresponsive. Snapchat wouldn't load. Canva refused to open. Fortnite players couldn't connect to servers. Even Amazon's own Alexa smart assistants sat silent, unable to respond to commands. The culprit? A massive Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage that exposed just how fragile our interconnected digital infrastructure really is.
For businesses relying on cloud services, this incident serves as a wake-up call. When a single infrastructure provider experiences problems, the ripple effects can shut down operations across the globe. This blog post breaks down what happened, which services were affected, and what your business can learn from this widespread disruption.
What Happened: The Timeline
The outage began in the early morning hours, with AWS first reporting issues at 12:11 AM PDT (3:11 AM ET). The problem originated in AWS's US-EAST-1 region, located in Northern Virginia, one of the most critical data center hubs powering the modern internet. Within hours, the impact became impossible to ignore.
AWS acknowledged the issue on its Service Health Dashboard, stating: "We are investigating increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS services in the US-EAST-1 Region." By 1:26 AM ET, Amazon confirmed the root cause was tied to DynamoDB, a critical database service that countless applications depend on. Specifically, DNS resolution issues prevented applications from finding and connecting to DynamoDB endpoints.
Think of DNS as the internet's phone book. It translates website names into the numerical addresses computers use to communicate. When that phone book stops working, even if the service is running perfectly, nothing can find it. That's exactly what happened to DynamoDB, and because so many services rely on it, the failure cascaded across the internet.
Here's how the outage unfolded throughout the morning:
- 12:11 AM PDT (3:11 AM ET) - First reports of AWS service disruptions in US-EAST-1 region.
- 12:51 AM PDT (3:51 AM ET) - Amazon confirms they are investigating the issue.
- 1:26 AM PDT (4:26 AM ET) - Amazon identifies "significant error rates for requests made to the DynamoDB endpoint in the US-EAST-1 Region."
- 2:00 AM PDT (5:00 AM ET) - Amazon announces they have identified a potential root cause related to DNS resolution and are working on multiple parallel recovery paths.
- 6:00 AM PDT (9:00 AM ET) - Services begin recovering as Amazon deploys fixes, though some users continue experiencing issues.
The Complete List: Every Major Business Hit by the AWS Outage
The October 20, 2025 AWS outage didn't discriminate. From billion-dollar corporations to essential government services, the failure cascaded across the digital landscape affecting over 60 major platforms and countless smaller services. Here's the comprehensive breakdown of every confirmed business impacted by this historic outage.
Gaming Platforms (10 Services Affected)
The gaming industry took one of the hardest hits, with millions of players unable to access their favorite titles during peak hours.
- Fortnite - Epic Games' flagship battle royale game went completely offline, affecting over 400 million registered players worldwide.
- Roblox - The user-generated gaming platform with 70+ million daily active users experienced total service disruption.
- Pokémon GO - Niantic's augmented reality game became unplayable, frustrating trainers globally.
- Epic Games Store - The entire digital storefront and launcher went down, preventing purchases and downloads.
- Epic Online Services - Backend infrastructure affecting multiple third-party games using Epic's services.
- PUBG Battlegrounds - The popular battle royale experienced server connectivity issues.
- Clash Royale - Supercell's mobile strategy game was inaccessible to millions of players.
- Clash of Clans - The legendary mobile strategy game experienced widespread outages.
- Rocket League - Epic's vehicular soccer game servers went offline.
- PlayStation Network - Sony's gaming network experienced partial service disruptions affecting online multiplayer and store access.
Social Media & Communication (4 Services Affected)
Communication platforms went dark, leaving millions unable to connect with friends, family, and colleagues.
- Snapchat - Over 5,000 user reports flooded Downdetector as the photo-sharing app with 750+ million monthly users became completely inaccessible.
- Signal - The privacy-focused messaging app experienced service disruptions, concerning security-conscious users.
- Slack - Business communication platform outages disrupted workplace collaboration for millions of teams globally.
- Zoom - Video conferencing issues affected remote meetings and virtual classrooms worldwide.
Financial Services & Banking (9 Services Affected)
Financial platforms experienced critical disruptions, raising serious concerns about transaction security and account access during business hours.
- Venmo - PayPal's peer-to-peer payment service went offline, preventing money transfers.
- Robinhood - The stock trading platform experienced outages during market hours, preventing trades and account access.
- Coinbase - The cryptocurrency exchange went down but quickly reassured users that all funds remained secure.
- PayPal - The global payment giant experienced transaction processing delays and service interruptions.
- Chime - The digital banking platform left customers unable to access accounts or make transactions.
- Lloyds Bank (UK) - One of Britain's largest banks experienced online and mobile banking failures.
- Halifax (UK) - Lloyds Banking Group subsidiary faced widespread online banking disruptions.
- Bank of Scotland (UK) - Another Lloyds subsidiary experienced critical online banking outages.
- Multiple UK Banks - Additional British financial institutions reported connectivity issues.
Productivity & Design Tools (7 Services Affected)
Creative professionals and businesses found themselves locked out of essential daily tools.
- Canva - The graphic design platform with 170+ million users went completely offline, halting design work globally.
- Perplexity AI - The AI-powered search engine experienced total service failure, with CEO Aravind Srinivas publicly acknowledging the AWS root cause.
- Duolingo - The language learning app with 80+ million monthly users became inaccessible.
- Airtable - The collaborative database platform disrupted project management for thousands of businesses.
- Smartsheet - The work management platform experienced service interruptions.
- Instructure - The educational technology company's platforms went offline, affecting schools and universities.
- Manus.ai - The AI productivity assistant platform experienced infrastructure failures.
AI & Developer Services (2 Services Affected)
Artificial intelligence platforms and developer tools faced critical authentication and API access issues.
- OpenAI (ChatGPT) - Single Sign-On (SSO) failures prevented users from logging in, and API access for developers was disrupted, affecting thousands of applications built on ChatGPT.
- Perplexity - The AI search platform went completely offline, with the CEO confirming AWS as the root cause.
Streaming & Entertainment (5 Services Affected)
Entertainment platforms left viewers staring at error screens instead of their favorite content.
- Disney+ - The streaming giant with 150+ million subscribers experienced service disruptions.
- Prime Video - Amazon's own streaming service ironically went down due to its parent company's infrastructure failure.
- Hulu - The streaming platform experienced widespread outages affecting millions of subscribers.
- Crunchyroll - The anime streaming service became inaccessible to fans worldwide.
- Apple TV - Apple's streaming service experienced partial disruptions.
Amazon's Own Services (3 Services Affected)
In a painful irony, Amazon's own consumer-facing services were among the most visible casualties of the AWS failure.
- Amazon.com - The e-commerce giant received over 15,000 outage reports, with users unable to browse or purchase products.
- Amazon Alexa - Smart assistants became completely unresponsive, unable to answer questions, control smart home devices, or execute routines.
- Ring - Doorbell cameras and security systems lost connectivity, leaving users without access to live feeds, recorded footage, or motion notifications.
Food & Retail Apps (2 Services Affected)
Consumer retail applications experienced disruptions affecting mobile ordering and shopping.
- McDonald's App - The fast-food giant's mobile ordering platform went offline during peak meal hours.
- Whatnot - The live shopping platform experienced service interruptions.
Fitness & Health (3 Services Affected)
Health and fitness tracking platforms left users unable to log workouts or access training programs.
- Peloton - The connected fitness platform experienced disruptions affecting live classes and on-demand content.
- MyFitnessPal - The nutrition tracking app with millions of users became inaccessible.
- Strava - The social fitness network experienced service outages affecting activity uploads and social features.
Transportation (1 Service Affected)
Ride-sharing services faced disruptions during peak commute hours.
- Lyft - The ride-sharing platform experienced service interruptions, affecting both riders and drivers.
Dating Apps (1 Service Affected)
Romance seekers found themselves unable to connect with potential matches.
- Hinge - The dating app experienced app opening failures and server connection issues.
News & Media (3 Services Affected)
Major news outlets and entertainment platforms experienced disruptions during a major news event.
- The New York Times - The prestigious newspaper's website experienced technical difficulties.
- Wordle - The NYT's viral word game became inaccessible, disappointing millions of daily players.
- Goodreads - Amazon's book tracking and recommendation platform went offline.
Government & Public Services (2 Services Affected - UK)
Perhaps most concerning, critical government infrastructure experienced failures, highlighting the risks of public services depending on commercial cloud providers.
- HMRC (UK) - Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs website displayed errors, preventing citizens from accessing tax services during business hours.
- Various gov.uk Services - Multiple UK government websites and digital services became inaccessible, affecting public service delivery.
Education (1 Service Affected)
Educational testing platforms experienced disruptions during critical testing periods.
- CollegeBoard - The educational testing organization's platforms experienced service issues.
Utilities & Tracking (2 Services Affected)
Family safety and telecommunications services faced disruptions.
- Life360 - The family location tracking app went offline, concerning parents unable to monitor their children's locations.
- Verizon - The telecommunications giant reported some service-related issues.
The Numbers Behind the Outage
The scale of this disruption was unprecedented. Over 60 major platforms were confirmed affected, with Downdetector receiving over 50,000 combined user complaints at the peak of the outage. Amazon.com alone generated 15,000 outage reports, while Snapchat accounted for 5,000 user complaints.
The geographic impact was truly global, with concentrated reports in major US cities including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, Dallas, Atlanta, St. Louis, and Detroit. International disruptions were significant in the UK, Canada, and other regions. The outage lasted approximately six hours from first reports to widespread recovery, affecting an estimated hundreds of millions of users globally.
Breaking down the impact by industry reveals the comprehensive nature of the failure. Gaming platforms were hit hardest with 10 major services affected, followed by financial services with 9 platforms including major banks. Productivity tools saw 7 essential business platforms go offline, while streaming services experienced 5 major entertainment platform disruptions. Social and communication tools had 4 critical platforms affected, Amazon's own services saw 3 consumer-facing platforms fail, and fitness and health platforms had 3 tracking services disrupted.
News and media experienced 3 information platform outages, AI and developer services saw 2 critical AI platforms fail, government services had 2 UK public services affected, food and retail experienced 2 consumer app disruptions, and utilities had 2 tracking and telecom services impacted. Transportation, dating, and education each saw 1 platform affected.
This comprehensive list demonstrates the unprecedented scope of the AWS outage and underscores a critical reality. When a single cloud infrastructure provider fails, the entire digital ecosystem can collapse like dominoes. For businesses, this serves as an urgent reminder that cloud dependency without proper redundancy planning is a catastrophic risk.
The Technical Root Cause
Amazon later confirmed that the issue stemmed from DNS resolution problems affecting the DynamoDB API endpoint in the US-EAST-1 region. DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL database service that provides fast, predictable performance with seamless scalability. It's a foundational service that many AWS applications and customer workloads depend on.
When DNS resolution failed, applications couldn't translate the DynamoDB service name into the IP address needed to connect. Even though the database itself may have been operational, without DNS working properly, it was effectively invisible to the applications trying to reach it. This created a cascading failure as services that depend on DynamoDB for storing user data, session information, and application state all began failing simultaneously.
Amazon's engineering teams worked on "multiple parallel paths to accelerate recovery," deploying fixes across their infrastructure. The company recommended that affected customers "continue to retry any failed requests" as services gradually came back online.
What This Means for Your Business
This outage is a stark reminder of the risks inherent in centralized cloud infrastructure. While AWS is known for reliability and has built redundancy into its systems, no provider is immune to failures. For small and medium-sized businesses, the implications are serious.
When your critical applications depend on a single cloud provider, you're vulnerable to exactly this kind of widespread disruption. Customer-facing services go offline. Internal productivity tools become inaccessible. Communication platforms fail. E-commerce transactions can't be processed. For businesses without backup plans, this translates directly into lost revenue, frustrated customers, and damaged reputation.
The outage also highlights a broader trend that experts have been warning about. As more platforms consolidate onto the same infrastructure providers, single points of failure become more dangerous. When AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud experience problems, the impact is no longer limited to a handful of services. It can affect thousands of applications simultaneously.
How to Protect Your Business
While you can't prevent cloud providers from experiencing outages, you can take steps to minimize the impact on your business. Here are the key strategies every organization should consider:
- Implement multi-cloud or hybrid strategies - Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Distribute critical workloads across multiple cloud providers or maintain on-premises backup systems for essential functions.
- Design for failure - Build redundancy into your applications. Use multiple availability zones within a cloud provider, and consider cross-region deployments for critical services.
- Maintain offline capabilities - Ensure that essential business functions can continue even when cloud services are unavailable. This might mean local data caches, offline-capable applications, or manual backup procedures.
- Monitor service health proactively - Subscribe to status updates from your cloud providers and use monitoring tools that alert you to issues before they impact customers.
- Have a communication plan - When outages occur, your customers need to know what's happening. Prepare templates and communication channels for quickly informing users about service disruptions.
- Test your disaster recovery plan - Regular testing ensures that when an outage happens, your team knows exactly what to do and your backup systems actually work.
We Can Help You Build a Resilient IT Infrastructure!
Instead of waiting for the next major cloud outage to expose vulnerabilities in your systems, why not plan for resilience ahead of time so the panic doesn't have to set in? Hexafusion IT Solutions will be there to help you design a multi-cloud strategy, implement proper redundancy, and ensure your business can weather infrastructure failures.
We're dedicated to helping businesses invest in the correct cloud architecture for their needs and ensure that their teams can maintain operations even when major providers experience disruptions. Let us help you next.
Give us a call at (604) 332-1500 to get started.
