Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud giant powering much of the internet, suffered a major outage recently. It brought down dozens of apps and platforms. The outage also affected several online games, including major esports titles.
Reports of widespread connection failures poured in from around the globe on October 20 of the current year. Players couldn’t log into their favorite games. Esports platforms went dark. Even social media used by gaming communities experienced disruptions.
The cause was a technical error deep inside AWS infrastructure. It exposed how dependent modern gaming is on cloud technology.
AWS says the outage began when an update went wrong, affecting one of their key database services, Amazon DynamoDB, at around 07:11 GMT. The faulty update disrupted the DNS or Domain Name System, the mechanism that directs apps to the correct servers.
Apps couldn’t find their servers when the DNS broke down, causing widespread disconnections. The outage affected 113 AWS services before the company restored operations a few hours later.
AWS says it’s still processing backlogged data. Some users may experience slower connections or login queues. The system is back online, but recovery is ongoing.
The outage take down corporate sites or banking apps and it the gaming world right where it hurts.
Supercell’s popular mobile titles, Clash of Clans and Clash Royale, went into maintenance mode. Players reported being unable to log in. The issue forced the games offline temporarily. On social media, the developer confirmed that Supercell ID logins are temporarily unavailable due to an external outage.
For now, the Epic Games Store was down for numerous hours, restricting players from accessing Fortnite and Rocket League. The outage also hit the PlayStation Network, limiting access to multiplayer titles and digital libraries.
Competitive communities felt the impact. Matchmaking services and online lobbies went dark. Fortunately, no major esports tournaments were happening during the outage. Even a key platform for esports news and fan discussions, Reddit, struggled to stay online.
