Major AWS Outage Disrupts Apps and Games Worldwide

Widespread Internet Disruption as Amazon Web Services Suffers DNS Outage

A massive DNS outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) on October 20, 2025, caused widespread disruption to thousands of websites, applications, and online services globally. The outage, which began around 3:00 AM EST and lasted for several hours, affected major platforms including Snapchat, Signal, Fortnite, Pokémon GO, Roblox, and numerous other services dependent on AWS infrastructure.

Technical Breakdown: DNS Resolution Failure

The root cause was identified as DNS resolution issues with DynamoDB APIs in AWS's US-EAST-1 region in North Virginia. DNS (Domain Name System) acts as the internet's phonebook, converting web addresses into IP addresses that computers can understand. When this system fails, users cannot connect to websites or services even though the underlying infrastructure remains operational.

Amazon confirmed in a statement that the issue was 'fully under control' by late afternoon, with most services returning to normal operation. However, some systems continued experiencing elevated error rates for launching new EC2 instances as the platform stabilized.

Global Impact and Affected Services

The outage's reach was staggering, with Downdetector receiving over 6.5 million global outage reports. Major gaming platforms were particularly hard hit, with Fortnite, Pokémon GO, Clash of Clans, and Roblox all experiencing connectivity issues. Social media platforms including Snapchat and communication apps like Signal were also affected, leaving millions of users unable to connect with friends and family.

Financial services weren't spared either, with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and banking apps experiencing disruptions. Even Amazon's own services, including Ring security systems and Alexa smart assistants, were impacted by the cascading failure.

Historical Context and Industry Implications

This represents the largest internet disruption since the Crowdstrike outage in July 2024 that affected hospitals and airports worldwide. As one cybersecurity expert noted, 'This incident underscores the internet's heavy reliance on centralized cloud infrastructure. When one of the major providers experiences issues, the ripple effects are felt across the entire digital ecosystem.'

AWS controls approximately 30% of the global cloud infrastructure market, making such outages particularly disruptive. The incident has reignited discussions about multi-cloud strategies and redundancy planning among businesses that depend on cloud services.

Recovery and Lessons Learned

While Amazon has successfully mitigated the DNS issue, the outage serves as a stark reminder of the internet's fragility. As services gradually returned online throughout the day, users experienced varying recovery times depending on their geographic location and the specific services they were trying to access.

The incident highlights the need for robust backup systems and diversified infrastructure strategies. As one industry analyst observed, 'Companies need to seriously consider multi-cloud approaches and test their failover capabilities regularly. The cost of downtime in today's digital economy is simply too high to ignore.'