If you were planning on getting some gaming in on your PS5 or PS5 Pro this weekend, the gods of glitches had other plans. The PlayStation Network went dark worldwide Friday evening (Feb. 7), and stayed down for nearly 24 hours, making this one of the largest PSN outages ever.
Everything from sign-ins to gaming to the PlayStation Store went offline before, on Saturday evening, the PlayStation status page suddenly shifted to green across the board with no more claims of service issues. PlayStation has apologized, blaming an "operational issue," and said PlayStation Plus subscribers will get an extra five days of service for their troubles, though sadly nonsubscribers are walking away from this mess empty-handed.
The first wave of reports that there were issues with the PlayStation Network came in around 6 p.m. ET on Friday. At around 8:45 p.m. ET, the PlayStation support account tweeted it was "aware some users might be currently experiencing issues with PSN." The PlayStation status page listed all PlayStation platforms as being impacted including PS5 and PS4 alongside legacy platforms PS3 and PS Vita as well as the PlayStation Store.
On Saturday afternoon, reports began trickling in that players could access the service once more, and by the evening the issue appeared resolved across the board. The last time the PSN was down was in October for nearly 9 hours.
Thousands of angry PlayStation players took to social media to express their frustration over the weekend. Call of Duty fans have been some of the most vocal, as the outage coincides with a promotional weekend for Black Ops 6 where players could earn double XP through Monday.
We’ll update this story as we learn more.
PSN outage latest live updates
Marvel Rivals developer in talks with PlayStation directly
As PSN remains dark, game makers have been chiming in with updates and apologies of their own. The team behind the popular team-based shooter Marvel Rivals issued the following statement on X:
"Due to PlayStation server’s emergent issue today, PlayStation users might have difficulty launching games, apps, or network features. We are actively communicating with the PlayStation team and will restore the game once we receive a solution plan from the PlayStation team. We apologize for any inconvenience and will notify the community through official channels once the issue is fixed. Thank you for your patience and understanding."
PlayStation players aren't happy
PlayStation users are reporting sign-in issues for PSN, and the PlayStation Network service status dashboard indicates that players “might have difficulty signing in or creating an account for PlayStation Network. We’re working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.”
Meanwhile, players are rushing to social media to voice their frustrations about the outage, with one Reddit thread on the PlayStation subreddit raking up over 10,000 comments, mostly complaints from unhappy gamers.
Still far from the longest PSN outage in history
As we enter hour 16 of the PSN outage, PlayStation has yet to issue an update as services continue to remain down into Saturday. PlayStation is currently a trending term on X (formerly Twitter), with players sharing memes about their frustration and expressing buyer's remorse that they didn't opt for an Xbox Series X instead.
As long as this outage has been, it still doesn't come close to the all-time insanity that was the 23-day outage back in April 2011 caused by a security breach where hackers made off with the user data of 77 million subscribers. Granted, that's little consolation when your favorite games remain offline in the here and now, especially given Sony's frustrating lack of response so far, but it's worth remembering that things could always be worse. And OG PlayStation fans haven't been shy about reminding folks of that.
Playstation Network is down: *kids cry while staring at their phones*2011 PS veterans: pic.twitter.com/yhXQGUAeiUFebruary 8, 2025
Still no new word from Sony while PlayStation Store is back for some
As of Saturday afternoon, the PlayStation Network continues to be down after going dark Friday evening. Right now all features are marked as down on Sony's PSN status page. Frustratingly, Sony has yet to issue an update since tweeting that it was aware of the issue at 8:46 p.m. ET on Friday.
There is some good news: I was able to access the PlayStation Store on my PS5 after seeing reports online that some players were having luck there, but when I tried playing Helldivers 2 and other online multiplayer games, a connection error popped up. User-submitted outage reports continue to creep in on Down Detector after spiking last night.
Possible workaround for PSN outage
Finally, some good news! A content editor at our sister site Homes & Gardens, Chiana Dickson, shared a potential workaround with the TechRadar crew, though the outlet cautioned that it only seems to work for playing titles on the PlayStation 5 that were downloaded during this PSN outage.
When we tested it out ourselves with Helldivers 2, we still weren't able to play, but the game did boot up instead of simply crashing and throwing up a connection error pop-up. So that's progress, I suppose.
If you want to try it out for yourself, here's a possible way to get around the PSN outage if you have a PS5:
- Head to the Settings menu on your PS5
- Select 'Users and Accounts;
- Select 'other'
- Under 'Other,' select "Restore Licenses'
- Select the titles you wish to play
Krispy Kreme offers gamers free donuts in these trying times
This is the longest period PSN has been down in over a decade, and gamers are understandably pissed as the hours creep on with no updates from Sony. A free doughnut won't get the PlayStation Network back online any sooner, but it can't hurt.
That's Krispy Kreme's idea, at any rate. The doughnut chain is offering free sweet treats this afternoon to soften the blow of PlayStation's outage, tweeting: "Calling all gamers: this play station still works 🍩 Grab a free Original Glazed Doughnut today from 5-7 PM—because sweet rewards don’t need a server."
Calling all gamers: this play station still works 🍩 Grab a free Original Glazed Doughnut today from 5-7 PM—because sweet rewards don’t need a server. 🎮🔥 #gaming #network #PSN #freedoughnut #krispykreme pic.twitter.com/kjB2VtosAjFebruary 8, 2025
Status update
Having kept y'all up to date on the latest PSN news, Alyse Stanley has signed out to enjoy the rest of her day, so it's me, Philip Michaels, taking over this live blog.
Before she left, Alyse checked the status of the PlayStation Network on her end and was able to sign in to Helldivers 2 and Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine 2, even taking part in some online matches. Likewise, Tony Polanco — another Tom's Guide staffer — reports that he's been able to play Street Fighter 6 matches without an issue. (He would also like to note that he won those matches, too.)
The takeaway here is that the network seems to be coming online for more and more people, though your mileage may vary. Let us know if you've seen any status changes on your end.
More games online
More from Tony Polanco, who also notes that Tekken 8 and Virtua Fighter 5 are working for him, while Monster Hunter is not. Also, Tony says he's been able to buy and download games from PlayStation.
More reports of the outage ending
UPDATE: PSN is starting to go online again for some users. pic.twitter.com/sq2ETSZYY5February 8, 2025
Here's PS5 News, taking to X to report that the PlayStation Network is online again for "some users," which matches the experience of our PS5-using staff.
Destiny 2 news
If you're a Destiny 2 player whose contest mode participation suffered at the hands of the PSN outage, the folks at Bungie have some encouraging words. Posting at Bluesky, the Destiny 2 account says that "we are planning an additional Sundered Doctrine Contest Mode weekend for all platforms."
In a follow-up post, Bungie clarified that the added session will be an "additional opportunity for those who had fireteams impacted by the outage to attempt to clear the Dungeon at Contest Difficulty."
Back in business?
Just ahead of 6 p.m. ET, we're hearing more reports that the PlayStation Network is back online, though a few straggling reports indicate that some people continue to have trouble connecting. Nevertheless, the stats at DownDetector show reports of PlayStation outages trending down.
We'll update again if we get more definitive word on the status of the network or if there's another official comment from Sony.
PlayStation Network Status goes green
A couple of minutes ago, the PSN Service Status page was still showing red, though the page hadn't actually been updated since 4:00 PM yesterday (Feb 7).
Suddenly, the page went green across the board with all services reporting normal.
It appears the network is back up or back up enough for Sony. Down Detector's reports are still trending downward though sitting around 2,000 as of this post.
Outage resolved
As of now the number of reports on DownDetector has dipped under 50. So it would seem that the PSN outage is resolved.
PlayStation gives five extra days of PS Plus
Hi there! Alyse back again here 👋. And guess what else is back? The PlayStation Network!
In a tweet just past midnight on Sunday, Sony blamed "an operational issue" for PSN's nearly 24-hour outage. To smooth things over, it announced that all PS Plus subscribers will get "an additional 5 days of service."
I suppose that's a fair trade (even if it's no free doughnut), though no doubt players who don't subscribe to PS Plus would rather have a free game or financial compensation. As it stands, non-subscribers are walking away from this empty-handed.
Network services have fully recovered from an operational issue. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank the community for their patience. All PlayStation Plus members will automatically receive an additional 5 days of service.February 9, 2025
Sony blames 'operational issue' for weekend outage
Sony has apologized for the weekend's outage and offered five days of PS Plus as recompense, but the Japanese company still hasn't revealed what caused the outage. At just over 24 hours, this is the second-longest PSN outage to date following the infamous 2011 outage which lasted for three weeks due to hackers.
It's unclear whether there was outside interference in this weekend's outage, although Sony did claim it was an "operational issue."
That didn't stop Verge reporter Tom Warren reminding everyone that Microsoft suffered a massive DDoS attack on Xbox infrastructure over the holidays, and claimed it's possible Sony was dealing with the same thing.
without Sony commenting, nobody knows why PSN has been down for 19 hours and counting. But Microsoft did block a “staggering” DDoS attack on Azure Xbox infrastructure over the Christmas holidays, so it’s possible Sony is dealing with something similar pic.twitter.com/0l3gJf04LJFebruary 8, 2025
At any rate, gamers are simply happy to be back online again and will be seriously hoping PSN doesn't fall victim to another outage any time soon.
Monster Hunter Wilds beta extended due to PSN outage
Capcom held a beta test for Monster Hunter Wilds over the weekend. While things went relatively fine for PC and Xbox users, those playing the game on PS5 weren't able to participate until Feb 8 at around 6 pm ET due to the PlayStation outage. Thankfully, Capcom is about to make it up to these players by extending this weekend's upcoming beta.
"Hunters," posted Capcom on its X page, "we're pleased to confirm that due to the PlayStation Network outage that occurred during the first week of OBT2, we're extending the second week of OBT2 by +24 hours on all platforms!"
The new beta period runs from Feb. 13, 7 pm PT / Feb. 14, 3 am GMT through Feb. 17, 6:59 pm PT / Feb. 18, 2:59 am GMT. And as Capcom said, this extension applies to all platforms.
