YouTube global outage 2026: Millions of users report disruptions (UPDATE-FIXED)

On Monday, 18 February 2026, YouTube experienced a global outage, with millions of users not able to access videos on the site. The problem was experienced with both the mobile application and the website, resulting in frustration. Millions of users rely on YouTube for entertainment, learning, and live streaming, and that’s the reason social media is quickly filled with users asking ‘Is YouTube Down?’ Additionally, they started sharing memes about the unexpected downtime.

YouTube Global Outage

The YouTube outage was first reported in the United States, with hundreds of thousands of users started experiencing issues while accessing YouTube. Downdetector, which is an outage monitoring website showed over 280,000 reports from the United States. While many faced issues with the YouTube app, there were some who also reported problems with website and logging into their accounts. In addition, YouTube TV also saw spike in complaints, with thousands of users not able to stream their favorite songs and channels.

If you’re having trouble accessing YouTube right now, you’re not alone — our teams are looking into this and will follow up here with updates: https://t.co/7iTU5S9AgT

— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) February 18, 2026

Reason Behind Outage

Google addressed the issue and stated in its official statement ‘“An issue with our recommendations system prevented videos from appearing across surfaces on YouTube (including the homepage, the YouTube app, YouTube Music and YouTube Kids). The homepage is back, but we’re still working on a full fix”

The tech giant mentioned that there’s some issue with the YouTube’s recommendation system, and hence, it is causing videos not to appear across various surfaces. These surfaces include YouTube app, YouTube Music, and YouTube Kids section.

While the company immediately restored the homepage, but Google confirmed that they are working on a full fix. In India, the outage affected more than 18,000 users, with many reporting issues with the YouTube app as well as other streaming services too.

Everybody running to Twitter to see why YouTube is down #youtubedown pic.twitter.com/vxMuoX8gDE

— Luciano Lucas (@tharealluciano) February 18, 2026

Reactions on Social Media and Memes

The YouTube global outage sparked a wave of reactions from users and social media flooded with memes. Platforms like X are flooded with memes, posts, GIF’s, and funny reactions about the disruption. Users started expressing frustration for not being able to watch their favorite content and joked about how the downtime affected their daily routines.

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Current Status

YouTube and Google says that they have [FIXED] Issues accessing YouTube and the final update coems form the company says-