You’re 3 wins away from hitting your first Ascendant rank, queued up for a competitive match, and the loading screen freezes out of nowhere. You get a vague “connection error” pop-up, and your first thought is probably are the valorant servers down. I’ve been there too: just last month I was one round away from a flawless competitive win when I got booted, and I spent 20 minutes troubleshooting my router before I realized the entire NA region was offline for emergency maintenance. This guide will walk you through exactly how to check server status, rule out issues on your end, and get back to playing as fast as possible.
How to confirm if are the Valorant servers down for everyone, not just you
The first step when you run into a connection issue is to rule out widespread outages before you touch any settings on your device. A lot of players waste hours messing with their router or reinstalling the game when the issue is entirely on Riot’s end, and you can avoid that with 30 seconds of checking. If you’re seeing widespread reports, then the answer to are the valorant servers down is yes, and you don’t need to waste time troubleshooting your own setup. Never trust random links from Discord servers or social media comments claiming to show server status, as these are often phishing scams designed to steal your Riot account credentials.
Stick to these verified, safe sources to get accurate, real-time server information:
- Riot Games' official service status page, which updates in real time for all regions and breaks down outages by game mode (competitive, unrated, custom, etc.)
- Official Valorant X (formerly Twitter) account for your region, which posts scheduled maintenance alerts 24-48 hours in advance and unexpected outage updates as soon as they are confirmed
- Community-run status trackers that aggregate user reports from across your region to spot small, regional outages that Riot’s official page may take a few minutes to flag
When checking these sources, pay attention to the timestamp of reports. If the last outage alert was posted 3 hours ago, servers are likely already back online, and your issue is probably local. Most unexpected outages are resolved within 1-2 hours, while scheduled maintenance usually lasts 2-3 hours depending on the size of the update being rolled out.
What to do once you confirm the Valorant servers are down
Once you’ve confirmed are the valorant servers down, there are a few key do’s and don’ts to follow to avoid extra hassle when they come back online. First, don’t spam the login button over and over trying to get in. Riot’s login systems are already under stress when servers are recovering from an outage, and repeated login attempts can trigger temporary 15-30 minute login cooldowns for your account as a security measure. You won’t lose rank or get a competitive penalty if the outage happens mid-match, Riot automatically cancels all matches affected by server outages without counting them towards your win/loss record or applying AFK penalties.
Any battle pass progress or challenge completion you earned before the outage hit is also saved automatically, so you don’t have to worry about redoing that 10-kill Duelist challenge you were 1 kill away from finishing. If you were in the middle of purchasing skins or battle pass levels, those transactions will either go through once servers are back or be refunded to your Riot Points balance within 24 hours, no action needed on your part. Don't try to make in-game purchases while servers are unstable, as this can lead to delayed processing or duplicate charges that take a few days to reverse.
While you wait, you can use the time productively: run through some lineup practice in the practice range, read through the latest patch notes to learn about upcoming balance changes, or even queue up for a casual match in another game if you don’t feel like waiting around. Most small outages are resolved in under an hour, so you won’t be waiting long in most cases.
Common issues that look like server outages (but aren’t)
It’s easy to assume are the valorant servers down when you get a random lag spike or login error, but more often than not, the issue is on your end. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve complained to my team about servers being broken only to realize my Wi-Fi cut out because my router was sitting under a pile of laundry. These issues are extremely common, especially during peak play hours between 7PM and 11PM local time, when both ISP networks and Riot’s servers are under the highest load.
ISP throttling is one of the most common causes of random lag spikes and disconnections during peak play hours. Many internet providers throttle gaming traffic during busy times to reduce network strain, which can make it look like servers are lagging even when they’re running perfectly. You can test for this by running a speed test while you’re having issues: if your download speed is less than 10mbps or your upload speed is less than 5mbps (the minimum required for Valorant), the issue is almost certainly your internet connection, not the servers.
Outdated Vanguard drivers can block you from logging in entirely, even if servers are running perfectly. Riot pushes small updates to Vanguard every few weeks, and if your client didn’t install the update automatically, you’ll get a vague “connection error” when you try to log in that looks exactly like a server outage. You can fix this by restarting your Riot Client, which will force it to check for Vanguard updates and install them automatically before you log in. If that doesn’t work, verifying your game files through the Riot Client settings will usually fix any corrupted driver or game file issues within a few minutes.
How to avoid missing server outage alerts in the future
Getting real time alerts means you’ll never have to wonder are the valorant servers down right before you queue for an important competitive match or tournament game. There are a few simple steps you can take to get alerts as soon as outages are reported, so you never waste time sitting at a loading screen waiting for a match that will never load. Most of these setups take less than 5 minutes to configure, and they’ll save you hours of frustration over time.
Scheduling your play sessions around announced maintenance windows can save you hours of frustration waiting for servers to come back. Riot almost always schedules maintenance for early morning hours on weekdays, when the fewest players are online, but if you play early in the morning, you can check the official Valorant social media account the night before to see if any maintenance is planned. Most third party status trackers also let you set up SMS, email, or push notifications for outages in your specific region, so you get an alert as soon as servers go down, no need to check manually.
If you play on a competitive team, you can add a free server status bot to your team’s Discord server that automatically posts alerts whenever there’s an outage or scheduled maintenance in your region. This way, everyone on the team gets the alert at the same time, and you don’t have to coordinate to figure out why half the team can’t log in for a scrim. Even if you only play casually, following your region’s official Valorant account on social media will keep you updated on big outages and maintenance windows before you sit down to play.
Next time you get hit with a random disconnection or login error, take 30 seconds to check if are the valorant servers down before you start unplugging routers or reinstalling the client. These simple steps have saved me hours of wasted troubleshooting over the last few years, and they’ll help you spend less time staring at error screens and more time climbing the ranks. If you do find it’s a local issue, the quick fixes we covered will get you back online faster than scrolling through random Reddit threads for half an hour.
