Alphabet-owned YouTube was down for thousands of users across the United States, Canada, Australia and the UK, according to Downdetector.

YouTube said in a statement published on its status page on Wednesday that it is aware of users experiencing issues watching videos, and added that it is investigating the issue.

It was not immediately clear what caused the issue.

As of 8:05 p.m. ET, 293,240 users have reported issues with YouTube just in the US, per Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from a number of sources.

Downdetector's numbers are based on user-submitted reports. The actual number of affected users may vary.

Google did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Published on October 16, 2025