October 20, 2025 – Global: Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing backbone for millions of websites and apps, experienced a major outage last night, causing widespread disruptions across digital platforms and financial services.

Popular apps including Snapchat, Duolingo, Roblox, Zoom, Canva, Slack, Signal, Fortnite, Wordle, and PlayStation Network were among the affected. Gaming platforms like Clash Royale, Clash of Clans, Rocket League, Epic Games, and Pokémon Go also reported service interruptions.

The outage extended to fitness and productivity tools such as Peloton, MyFitnessPal, Life360, and Smartsheet, leaving users unable to access key features. Even major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and several UK banks—Halifax, Lloyds, and Bank of Scotland—were impacted, according to Downdetector.

AWS confirmed the issue originated in its US-EAST-1 region, specifically with DynamoDB APIs, a core database service. In a public update, Amazon stated:

“We have identified a potential root cause for the error rates and are working on multiple parallel paths to accelerate recovery.”

🌐 Why It Matters

Amazon Web Services powers critical infrastructure for businesses, governments, and global platforms. Outages like this highlight the vulnerability of centralized cloud systems and their ripple effects across industries.

BriefNews.lk will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as AWS works toward full restoration.