The annual network outage report for 2026 reveals that while the total number of major internet outages decreased by 12% compared to 2025, the average duration of outages increased by 25%. The report, compiled by Network World, analyzes data from over 200 ISPs and cloud providers worldwide.
'We're seeing fewer but longer outages,' said the report's lead analyst. 'This suggests that while infrastructure is becoming more reliable, when failures do occur, they tend to be more complex and take longer to resolve.'
The top causes of major outages were: DNS configuration errors (34%), DDoS attacks (28%), undersea cable damage (18%), and software bugs (12%). Cloud providers accounted for 45% of all major incidents.