Are you one of many people who tuned in to watch Gen V Season 2, only to be faced with “error code 5004”? Just know you’re not alone – Amazon Prime Video isn’t the only service that’s impacted right now.
Amazon doesn’t just deliver anything you could ever want to your door. Prime Video is one of the biggest streaming services in the world, offering a wide range of TV shows and movies through its platform, as well as add-on channels and on-demand viewing.
Notably, it’s the home of The Boys franchise, where spinoff Gen V Season 2 is currently streaming. But some of its other TV hits include The Girlfriend, The Summer I Turned Pretty, Rings of Power, Reacher, and Jack Ryan, to name a few.
The latest figures show Prime Video has over 240 million subscribers worldwide, making it the second biggest streaming platform after Netflix. But today (October 20, 2025), many subscribers found themselves suddenly unable to watch anything at all.
Is Amazon Prime Video down right now?
Yes, according to Downdetector, there has been a sharp increase in reports indicating issues with Amazon Web Services (AWS). The outage is impacting multiple services that depend on the AWS infrastructure, including Prime Video.
The outlet reports issues in the US-East-1 region, which refers to Amazon’s massive cluster of data centers in Northern Virginia. It’s a key part of AWS’s cloud network, and when it experiences problems, major online services like Prime Video can be affected worldwide.
Amazon’s streaming platform is far from the only service that’s been hit. Alongside the main site, multiple Amazon-related apps are down:
- AWS
- Amazon Alexa
- Ring
- Blink Security
- Prime Video
- IMDb
- Amazon Music
Since AWS is a huge provider of cloud computing services, it’s also had an impact on the following sites that rely on it:
- Snapchat
- Zoom
- Roblox
- Venmo
- Epic Games Store
- Fortnite
- My Fitness Pal
- PlayStation Network
As stated by Downdetector, “These problems are impacting multiple services that depend on AWS infrastructure.”
Users started logging issues with Amazon at around 3am ET on October 20, reaching nearly 15,000, while Prime Video reports spiked by nearly 2,500.
Error code 5004 explained
For now, users are taking to social media to complain about the issues, with many Prime Video subscribers faced with the following message: error code 5004.
This either indicates a sign-in failure or a network connectivity issue, but given the issues with AWS, we can assume it’s due to the latter. Usually, this can be fixed by double checking your login details and internet connection to make sure they’re in working order.
However, in this case, it’s not an issue on the user’s end – it’s a result of the wider AWS outage affecting Amazon’s servers. When this happens, your device can’t properly communicate with Prime Video’s login or playback systems, even if your internet is working fine.
In short, there’s nothing you can do to fix error 5004 right now. It should resolve automatically once Amazon’s engineers restore service to the affected servers.
Over on Reddit, one person shared a screenshot of the message, writing, “Is anyone else having a problem right now trying to watch something because I keep getting this message? I even tried to watch something else. Nothing is working.”
“I thought I was trippin’, but apparently Amazon and all of its services are down right now. This is crazy,” said another on X/Twitter, while a third added, “AWS are down everywhere. Unable to login to my Prime Video account.”
When will Amazon get fixed?
As of 2.27am PT, Amazon said it was seeing “significant signs of recovery,” suggesting the issue may be resolved later today. The company confirmed it’s actively working to restore services impacted by the widespread outage.
“We continue to work through a backlog of queued requests. We will continue to provide additional information,” the company wrote.
Half an hour prior, Amazon stated, “We have identified a potential root cause for error rates for the DynamoDB APIs in the US-EAST-1 Region. Based on our investigation, the issue appears to be related to DNS resolution of the DynamoDB API endpoint in US-EAST-1.
“We are working on multiple parallel paths to accelerate recovery. This issue also affects other AWS Services in the US-EAST-1 Region.
“Global services or features that rely on US-EAST-1 endpoints such as IAM updates and DynamoDB Global tables may also be experiencing issues.
“During this time, customers may be unable to create or update Support Cases. We recommend customers continue to retry any failed requests. We will continue to provide updates as we have more information to share, or by 2:45am.”
Essentially, the problem seems to come from DNS resolution, which is basically how computers translate a web address into an IP address that servers can use.
It’s affecting DynamoDB, one of Amazon’s major cloud database services used by thousands of apps and websites.
In short, if you’re having problems with any apps today, it’s probably linked to the outage. Sit tight, and be sure to keep an eye out for updates.
Global internet outage leaves major apps and games offline