Netizens fume as ARC Raiders, other games stop mid-play — ‘Can’t rely on servers that...’

Thousands of users worldwide reported that their favourite gaming platforms, including ARC Raiders, Steam, Fortnite and the Epic Games Store, stopped mid-play due to an alleged outage of Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Christmas Day.

Users worldwide, particularly in the United States, have reported difficulties accessing multiple online services. According to Downdetector, more than 4,000 users reported issues around 9:30 PM EST on Wednesday.

However, AWS has rejected claims that its servers experienced any outage. “AWS continues to operate normally and there was no service disruption,” said AWS spokesperson.

Here's how netizens reacted:

Netizens, who were just easing into the holiday season this morning, fumed at the outage and said that they shouldn't have to rely on “servers that get attacked every 2 weeks”.

“Really sick of aws going down and taking everything down with it y’all can not all rely on these same servers that get attacked like every 2 weeks . Please,” a user said.

“Ah. AWS down again! Gotta dem it! What's Jeff Bezos doing with our subscriptions,” asked an angry user.

A gamer asked, “Not playing fortnite, aws servers are down, you all going to compensate players that cant open presents?”

A gamer, responding to a post about the outage of Epic Online Services, said, “Ridiculous that we’re dead in the water because Epic is down. We launch via Steam & play on AWS—Epic shouldn't be a bottleneck just because the game uses UE. When one 3rd-party ‘bridge’ service can lock out the entire player base, the system is flawed. We need a permanent fix.”

“HOLY SERVER APOCALYPSE! 🎮💥 #ArcRaiders, #CallofDuty, #Fortnite, and #Rust are DOWN, CRASHED, OBLITERATED on Christmas Eve! 😱 346K Arc players yeeted into the void, and we’re stuck twiddling thumbs with NO ETA! Is this a freaking CYBER ATTACK?!” said a gamer.

Another added, “A lot of things are down. This has happened before hackers trying to spoil gaming and stuff at Christmas. Wouldn't shock me it's something like this again.”

“AWS said merry christmas by shutting down,” another game said.

‘Services operating normally’: AWS denies outage claims

In response to the outage reports, AWS categorically denied any disruption to its infrastructure. Posting on X, the company’s official AWS Newsroom account stated: “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 also clarified that the only reliable source for checking the operational status of its services is the official AWS Health Dashboard.

Confusion triggered by third-party issues?

While AWS did not specify what caused the confusion, such incidents often occur when third-party services or regional network providers face technical issues that indirectly affect user access.

These disruptions can give the impression of a wider cloud outage, even when core infrastructure remains stable.