PlayStation Network is back up and running after major outage

On Monday evening, every gamer’s worst nightmare became a reality. The PlayStation Network went down, locking users out of their accounts and removing any access to online gaming or any games that require an online connection. The outage lasted for several hours, with the official PSN Service Status website confirming that there were problems affecting almost all areas, including gaming, account management, and the PlayStation Store.

However, at the time of writing, I’m able to sign in to my account on my PS5 and access both offline and online games. Across social media, it appears that most other users are now also able to sign in to their accounts and access online games again, although the official PSN Service Status page has not yet updated to state the services are up and running. It may be the case that the problem returns, but at the moment, most users seem to be able to access games without any further issues.

The PSN outage started on Monday evening

The problem stopped access to all but offline games

According to the official PSN Service Status page, the problem started at 9.21 pm ET on September 30. Many users took to social media in horror as they were locked out of playing their games for several hours.

The PSN Service Status page stated that the issue was affecting multiple areas. This included account management, meaning that it wasn’t possible to sign in to an account, to edit your account details, or to create a new account. PlayStation Video was also affected, meaning you weren’t able to access PlayStation Video content.

The PlayStation Store was also down, so it wasn’t possible to search, browse, purchase, or download games. Most upsetting of all, however, was that gaming and social were down, meaning users were unable to launch apps or games that had any online element, including those games that only needed an online connection to sign in. Games that are totally offline could still be played, however, provided that you already had a local copy.

The problems were listed as affecting the PS3, PS4, PS5, PS Vita, as well as “Web” and “Other” platforms.

PSN appears to be back up and running

This isn’t official at the time of writing, however

Around 4.30am ET, users started to report that they were able to access the PlayStation Network once again, and that it was possible to sign in to accounts and play online games. I checked this on my own PS5 and found that I was able to sign back into my account and play any games that I wanted without any obvious problems. The PlayStation Store also appeared to be back up and running; I was able to search and browse games and the purchase links appeared to be working.

However, at the time of writing, the official PSN Service Status page still reads the same as it has since the problem first occurred, with a warning that “some services are experiencing issues” and red flags next to the account management, gaming and social, PlayStation Video, and PlayStation Store sections. It may be the case that the problems are not yet fully resolved, and there is always a chance that the problem may recur even if you are currently able to access your games again.

Hopefully, Sony will provide some official word once the problem has been completely resolved, and we can all get back to gaming again without the horrific thought of having to go outside and deal with the real word hanging over us.

Sony PlayStation 5

The PlayStation 5 is Sony’s fifth and best version of its hugely popular console. It’s packed with tech to take your gaming experience to the next level.