A significant technical failure has plunged thousands of users into chaos as multiple major services including Microsoft Outlook, Xbox Live and supermarket giant ASDA experienced simultaneous crashes across the UK.
Widespread Service Disruption
The outage, which began affecting users on Tuesday morning, created a domino effect of disruption for both businesses and consumers. Microsoft's popular email platform Outlook became inaccessible for many users, while Xbox Live gaming services went offline, preventing gamers from accessing online multiplayer features.
Meanwhile, ASDA supermarkets reported technical issues affecting their operations, though the supermarket chain has been working to minimise disruption to customers.
User Reports Skyrocket
Downdetector, the service that monitors online outages, recorded a massive spike in reports from affected users. At the peak of the disruption, over 6,000 individual reports flooded in from frustrated Microsoft users unable to access their emails.
The outage monitoring service's heat maps clearly showed the problem was widespread across the United Kingdom, with particularly high concentrations of reports coming from major urban centres.
Social Media Reaction
Social media platforms quickly filled with complaints from users experiencing the technical issues. One frustrated user expressed their disbelief, stating: "Is the internet breaking? Outlook, Xbox and ASDA all down at once? What's going on?"
Another user highlighted the impact on their workday, commenting: "Trying to get any work done with Outlook down is impossible. This is costing businesses serious productivity."
Service Restoration Efforts
Microsoft has acknowledged the issues and their technical teams are actively working to restore full service. The company stated they are "investigating an issue affecting access to Microsoft 365 services" and would provide updates as more information becomes available.
While some services have begun to gradually come back online, many users continue to experience intermittent access problems as engineers work to fully resolve the underlying technical fault.
