Jan 2026 Site Outage - Rolling Coverage

Coverage by Ecclestia (Editor-in-Chief)
28 January 2026

BREAKING NEWS: As of 28 January 2026 (UTC), the entire NationStates website is offline due to the investigation of a 'security issue'. No further information has been provided by the game's administrators. The NationStates Times will be provided rolling coverage of this outage (below) and updates as new information arises.

If you have any details about the site shutdown, please use the contact form on The NationStates Times' homepage (drop down menu) or submit a comment below.

ROLLING COVERAGE

30 JANUARY

2:41AM (UTC)

Additional information has been provided on the nature of the breach and current work being done to reopen the site. Notably, the vulnerability came from the new 'dispatch search' function.

1:39AM (UTC)

The NationStates shutdown is now entering day 3. Despite the initial indication that the shutdown would last for 5 days, the NationStates homepage is still showing the estimated time to return as 4 days, indicating a total fo 6 days offline. It is possible this relates to a time difference however this is yet to be confirmed.

Stay tuned for more coverage.

28 JANUARY

3:42AM (UTC)

PASSWORDS COMPROMISED - ACTION RECOMMENDED

A new update has been provided that all passwords are being considered compromised. Site admin are recommending resused passwords 'should be immediately changed wherever it is used.'

(Note: this entry was updated 3.46AM UTC)

3:31AM (UTC)

A new update, posted at approximately 3:25AM (UTC) has been provided by site Founder Max Barry. The update is available below:

3:08AM (UTC)

The site and forums are currently offline with the game's page estimating a 5 day shutdown due to the investigation of a 'security issue'. No details about the security issue have been released however site administrators have indicated that 'No user data has been lost'.

Independent websites such as IsItDownRightNow? have verified the site's offline status.

The following message is being displayed on the NationStates Homepage: