Best answer: Yes, the PlayStation Network is currently experiencing issues with gaming and social, meaning some players may have difficulty launching games and apps or using network features as of July 22, 2021. Sony has not yet acknowledged the problem on its website.
The PlayStation Network is down on March 1, 2021
Sony's PSN began experiencing outages on February 26, 2021 and these have continued throughout the weekend and into March 1. While some issues have been resolved players may still have difficulty launching games and accessing certain network features. Sony is currently working on a fix.
How to fix PlayStation Network connection problems
If the entire PlayStation Network is down, the situation is unfortunately out of your hands. Since the PlayStation Network is up right now and you're still having trouble, you can start by testing your internet connection or even just turning off your PS4 or PS5 and turning it back on. It's a tried and true method that'll attempt to reconnect it to PSN.
Performing an internet connection test on PS4
- On the PlayStation home screen, go to Settings.
- Scroll down to Network.
- Select Test Internet Connection.
Performing an internet connection test on PS5
- Go to Settings.
- Select Network.
- Select Connection Status.
- Select Test Internet Connection.
If the problem is your internet and not PSN, try resetting your router and reconnecting your PS4 or PS5 to your Wi-Fi network. Follow the same steps as above but instead of testing the internet connection, select Set Up Internet Connection. There are a host of things you can do to troubleshoot online connection problems on PS5, so be sure to exhaust all of your options if you know the issue is on your end and not Sony's.
If that doesn't cut it, you may also want to consider connecting your PS4 to the internet with an Ethernet cable.
Why does the PlayStation Network go down?
There is a myriad of issues that can cause PSN to go down, both on Sony's side and on your own. Common error codes when the PlayStation Network is down don't exactly offer much insight into the root of the problem.
- WV-33899-2 or E-82000168 (Could not connect to PlayStation Network)
- NW-31201-7 (Could not connect to the network)
- NP-31952-0 (Network connection has timed out)
- E-8200013A (Can't Access PSN Server)
- CE-33945-4 (Connection to server failed)
- CE-34861-2 (A network error has occurred)
Other times the network may go down for planned maintenance, in which case Sony will notify users ahead of time over social media. On days like Christmas, the network may run slower than usual because so many people are inundating it trying to play their new games.
In rare instances, the PlayStation Network will suffer a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack where someone (or an entire group) will purposefully and maliciously take the network offline to disrupt traffic.
Jennifer Locke is Android Central's Games Editor and has been playing video games nearly her entire life. You can find her posting pictures of her dog and obsessing over PlayStation and Xbox, Star Wars, and other geeky things on Twitter @JenLocke95.
