YouTube outage hits thousands globally: Here's what we know

Alphabet, Google's parent outfit that runs YouTube, saw outages messing with thousands of users in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and the U.K., as tracked by Downdetector (site crunching data on key web service blackouts).

YouTube on Wednesday, October 15, 2025, said on its status page that it is aware of users experiencing issues watching videos and added that it is investigating the issue.

While Downdetector, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), shared a post stating, “ User reports indicate problems with YouTube since 7:19 PM EDT.”

On the other hand, YouTube which is Google’s largest video sharing platform, ended its quiet streak as the uproar began.

On X (formerly Twitter), YouTube shared a post that read: “If you’re not able to play videos on YouTube right now—we’re on it! Thanks for your patience.”

Social media kicked into gear like always: cracking jokes in times of frustration. Just within minutes, X was flooded with memes about the sudden YouTube outage.

One user quipped at the situation, “Everybody refreshing YouTube right now.”

As per the latest update from YouTube, the issue has been fixed. The streaming platform shared the update on X with a caption:

“Good news, we’re back in action.”

However, it remains unclear for now what caused the issue.

As of 8:05 p.m. ET, 293,240 users have reported issues with YouTube just in the U.S., per Downdetector.

The numbers shown on Downdetector are based on reports submitted by its users; however, the actual number of affected users may have the possibility to vary.