AWS denies outage as gamers report outage with EPIC Games' ARC raiders, Fortnite

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has firmly rejected allegations of a significant outage affecting its servers during the night between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Various media outlets and outage-tracking services indicated widespread interruptions, with numerous users in the United States reporting challenges accessing online platforms. According to Downdetector, over 4,000 users highlighted issues around 9:30 PM EST on Wednesday. Notable gaming platforms such as Fortnite, Steam, Arc Raiders, and the Epic Games Store were prominently mentioned as experiencing difficulties, leading to speculation about a potential AWS failure. In response, AWS categorically stated that their services were operating normally. An official post from the AWS Newsroom account on X clarified, "No, that's false. AWS services are operating normally today, but an event elsewhere on the internet has prompted some inaccurate speculation on social media." The company emphasized that the official AWS Health Dashboard is the best source for updates on their service status. While AWS did not elaborate on what might have caused the misunderstanding, such scenarios can arise when third-party services or regional network providers encounter technical difficulties, which can inadvertently affect user access and create the illusion of a broader outage. Social media posts claimed that AWS was undergoing a major outage, with one account suggesting it might be the third-largest ever, affecting various services including Arc Raiders, Fortnite, and PlayStation Network. AWS urged users to refer to its official status page for accurate and timely information, cautioning against relying on social media during peak traffic periods like holidays. Additionally, the gaming distribution platform Steam faced its own global outage on Christmas Eve, impacting hundreds of thousands of users for over an hour. Reports of the service going offline began around 2:00 PM ET, with a temporary restoration around 2:30 PM. However, connectivity issues persisted for many users. By midnight EST, complaints on Downdetector dropped significantly, suggesting that Steam services were gradually returning to normal. Updates from unofficial Steam status trackers confirmed that many functionalities had been restored.