Reddit Investigates Global Outage After Downdetector Reports Spike
Reddit, one of the world’s leading social media platforms, grappled with a widespread outage Wednesday, leaving hundreds of thousands of users unable to access content or participate in their favorite communities. Downdetector, a popular service that tracks online outages, showed user reports soaring past 100,000 at the peak of the disruption.
The outage began around 11:40 a.m. ET, quickly raising alarm as both desktop and mobile users encountered persistent error messages and empty home feeds. Reports poured in from across the globe, spanning the U.S., India, and major cities in Europe, underscoring Reddit’s broad international reach.
Reddit acknowledged the issue on its status page just after noon Eastern, stating:
“We have identified the cause of the issue and are working to address it.”
Shortly thereafter, the company’s engineering team deployed a fix intended to stabilize platform performance. Service was gradually restored over the next two hours, with normal access returning for most users by early afternoon.
Courtney Geesey-Dorr, a Reddit spokesperson, told CNN that “an update we made caused some instability,” adding that Reddit was “seeing Reddit ramp back up” as systems recovered.
This latest incident is part of a series of technical disruptions plaguing Reddit over the past year. Last month, a similar outage affected roughly 31,000 users. In April 2025, another global disruption temporarily took the site offline for more than 100,000 users, highlighting the ongoing challenges faced by social platforms handling massive traffic and constant technical updates.
As services came back online, users took to rival platforms to exchange jokes and commiserate over their lost Reddit time, with some humorously noting it was a chance to “touch grass” between digital sessions.
Reddit said it is actively reviewing the outage and will apply additional safeguards to minimize future disruptions. For now, the outage serves as a reminder that even some of the internet’s largest communities are not immune to the occasional technical hiccup.
