Reddit suffered a widespread service outage on Tuesday afternoon, leaving large numbers of users across the United Kingdom and Europe unable to access the platform via its website and mobile applications. According to monitoring data from DownDetector, the disruption began shortly after 16:30 UK time and quickly spread across major cities including London, Manchester, Cardiff and Plymouth. Users reported blank pages, failed log-ins and an inability to load posts or comment threads. Reddit later confirmed that it was investigating “elevated errors across reddit.com and native apps.” This is reported by The WP Times, citing platform status data and official Reddit communications.
Scale of the disruption
Data collected by DownDetector showed a steep spike in error reports within minutes of the first failures being detected. The scale and geographic spread of complaints suggested a platform-level technical fault rather than isolated connectivity problems.
Of all user reports submitted during the outage:
- 54% concerned failures in the Reddit mobile app
- 37% related to the website not loading
- 9% involved server and connection errors
The concentration of reports across multiple UK regions indicates that the issue was not linked to a single internet service provider or data centre.
Reddit’s official statement
Reddit confirmed the outage via its official service status channel, stating: “We are currently investigating elevated errors across reddit.com and native apps.” The company did not immediately provide details about the technical cause or the expected timeframe for full service restoration. Industry practice in such cases is to stabilise the platform before releasing a detailed post-incident report.
What can cause outages on platforms like Reddit
Reddit runs on a globally distributed cloud infrastructure designed to serve tens of millions of users in real time. The platform relies on multiple interconnected systems, including content delivery networks, authentication services, databases and traffic-routing layers. When one of these components becomes unstable, the effects can spread quickly across the entire service.
Outages of this scale are most commonly triggered by:
- Software deployment failures, where updates introduce unexpected errors into live systems
- Database or authentication breakdowns, preventing users from logging in or loading content
- Traffic surges that overwhelm servers, particularly during peak usage periods
- Cloud infrastructure disruptions, affecting the data centres that host Reddit’s core services
- Network routing or DNS faults, which stop user devices from reaching Reddit’s servers
Because these systems are tightly integrated, a fault in one layer — such as user authentication or traffic routing — can cascade across web and mobile platforms simultaneously, resulting in widespread service disruption.
DownDetector is a real-time monitoring service used by newsrooms and technology analysts to verify whether online platforms are experiencing genuine outages. It collects thousands of reports from users who are unable to access websites or mobile apps and compares this data against normal traffic patterns for each service.
An outage is confirmed only when the volume of problem reports rises sharply above the expected level for that time of day, indicating a system-wide failure rather than isolated connection issues.
The platform also publishes live regional maps and technical breakdowns showing whether users are affected by website errors, app failures or server connectivity problems, allowing journalists and the public to assess the scale and location of an incident.
How users can check if Reddit is back online
The Reddit outage was first reported on Tuesday, 13 January 2026, shortly after 16:30 UK time, when DownDetector began registering a sharp increase in error reports across the UK and Europe. Users can confirm the current service status by checking DownDetector, which displays real-time outage levels and regional data based on live user reports. Reddit also publishes official updates through its @redditstatus account on X, where the company confirmed it was investigating “elevated errors across reddit.com and native apps.” If outage reports continue to be recorded across multiple regions, the disruption is caused by Reddit’s internal systems rather than by individual devices, internet providers or local network issues.
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