McDonald’s Apologizes After Tech Outage Shuts Down Apps And Kiosks

The widespread nature of the outage caught the attention of customers around the world, and some speculated on social media about the cause. Redditors peppered comments throughout several threads mentioning what they dubbed the “McMeltdown” or the “MacTastrophe.” Some employees talked about missed shifts and technical problems caused by the glitch or suggested a cyber attack was to blame. Many Instagram commenters used the situation as an opportunity to poke fun at the chain’s chronically out-of-service ice cream machines, wondering if this was finally the day the machines would ironically work again with no way to place an order.

The tech glitch affected a huge swath of territory, impacting untold numbers of customers and employees and potentially damaging each restaurant’s bottom line. McDonald’s has over 40,000 fast-food outlets worldwide. They collectively made over $20 billion in sales in 2023. Over 1,000 McDonald’s are located in Australia, and in Japan, McDonald’s has a 20% fast-food market share, encompassing nearly 3000 stores.