Too Big to Fail? The Largest Outages in 2024 According to Downdetector

Wed Dec 11 18:00:00 UTC 2024: ## Global Internet Outages in 2024 Disrupt Millions: Facebook, CrowdStrike, and AT&T Among Worst Affected

**London, UK** – A new report from Ookla, analyzing Downdetector data from Q1-Q3 2024, reveals widespread internet disruptions impacting millions globally. The largest outages stemmed from social media sites, internet providers, and gaming services.

Facebook experienced the most significant global outage on March 5th, with over 11.1 million users worldwide reporting issues. This outage also topped regional charts, affecting over 908,000 users in the Asia-Pacific region alone, impacting Instagram as well.

The second largest global disruption came unexpectedly from CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm. A software update failure on July 19th affected millions via its reliance by various services, including emergency services, airlines, and ride-sharing apps, resulting in nearly 5 million reported issues.

AT&T’s network suffered a major outage, the third largest globally, due to an equipment configuration error. This 12-hour disruption left millions of US customers without service.

Regional variations were also noted. Europe saw Facebook’s March 5th outage as the most significant, affecting over 3.4 million users, followed by a WhatsApp disruption. In the Asia-Pacific region, besides Facebook, issues with Microsoft 365 and local services like PayPay and Jio impacted thousands. Latin America mirrored European trends, with Facebook and WhatsApp outages leading the way. The Middle East and Africa saw disruptions impacting both global platforms (Microsoft 365, Facebook) and local providers such as Telkom, MTN, Vodacom, and du. The US also experienced significant disruptions from the Facebook and CrowdStrike outages in addition to AT&T’s network failure.

The report highlights the significant dependence on online services and the considerable impact even brief outages have on daily life and various critical industries. Ookla recommends businesses utilize services like Downdetector Explorer™ for early warning of potential service issues.