Everything is blowing up. Literally.
You’re mid-slide, aiming for a Cashout station in the middle of a collapsing skyscraper, and then it happens. The red icon flashes. You freeze. The game rubberbands you back three feet. Honestly, there is nothing more soul-crushing in The Finals than having a perfect play ruined by the dreaded "Server Not Responding" message.
If you're checking The Finals servers status because you can't log in or your bullets aren't registering, you aren't alone. It's January 2026, and Season 9: Dragon Rising is in full swing. But with new content comes the classic Embark headache: server instability.
What is actually going on with the servers today?
As of mid-January 2026, the overall status is "Operational," but that word is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Most players are getting in fine, but the quality of those sessions is a different story. If you're on a PC, you've likely noticed a spike in micro-stutters that started around the Update 9.4.0 rollout.
Earlier this month, we saw a massive global hiccup. It wasn't just Embark. A major Cloudflare outage basically nuked half the internet, taking The Finals, Fortnite, and even Steam down with it. People were losing their minds on Reddit, thinking their accounts were "redacted." Nope. Just the infrastructure of the modern web falling apart.
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But let's talk about the specific game issues.
- Matchmaking Queues: Sometimes you’ll sit in the lobby for five minutes and nothing happens. This usually isn't a "down" server; it's a matchmaking logic error. A quick game restart usually kicks it back into gear.
- The "High Latency" Icon: If you see those yellow or red squares on the right side of your screen, the server is struggling to keep up with the destruction. Remember, The Finals handles physics server-side. Every time a building collapses, the server has to calculate every single brick's trajectory.
- PS4 End of Life: This is the big one. Embark officially announced that service for the PlayStation 4 version will end on March 18, 2026. If you are playing on an old-gen console, you might be noticing more crashes and longer load times as they start to sunset that hardware support.
Is it the server or just you?
Before you go yelling at the devs on X (formerly Twitter), check the basics. Are you on Wi-Fi? If you are, stop it. Seriously. This game is incredibly sensitive to packet loss. Even a tiny dip in your signal will make it look like the servers are dying.
I’ve seen a lot of people claim the servers are "trash" when they're actually just being routed to the wrong region. Double-check your settings. If you’re in New York but your game is trying to put you in a Tokyo lobby because of a "Matchmaking Region: Automatic" bug, you’re going to have a bad time. Manually set it to your closest region.
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The Season 9 performance tax
Season 9 introduced Fangwai City, and it’s beautiful. It’s also a resource hog. Some players with high-end rigs (we’re talking RTX 5080s) have reported weird micro-stutters that weren't there in Season 8.
There is a weird fix floating around that actually works for some: forced DX12. If you're on Steam, right-click the game, go to Properties, and in the Launch Options, type -dx12. It sounds simple, but it has stabilized the frame pacing for a ton of people who thought the servers were lagging.
Why things feel "different" lately
There is a lot of chatter in the community about Arc Raiders. Embark’s other project has been a massive hit, and some cynical players think server resources are being diverted. There’s no hard proof of that, but it's true that The Finals is a technical beast to maintain.
Maintaining the The Finals servers status isn't just about keeping the lights on. It's about syncing destruction for 12 to 24 players simultaneously. When you see a "Server Performance" icon, it usually means the physics engine is overwhelmed. With the new Point Break mode and increased destruction tech, the servers are working harder than ever.
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How to check for outages in real-time
Don't just trust the in-game "All Systems Go" message. It’s often delayed. If you think there’s a genuine outage, follow this checklist:
- The Official X Account: @reachthefinals is surprisingly good about posting when they have "capped player counts" or are doing maintenance.
- DownDetector: Look for spikes. If you see 2,000 reports in ten minutes, go get a coffee. The game is down.
- Discord: The official The Finals Discord has a #server-status channel. It’s usually the first place to get hit with "is it down?" messages.
- Epic Games Status: Since the game uses Epic Online Services (EOS) for a lot of its backend, an Epic outage means a Finals outage.
Fixes you can try right now
If you can't connect, try these steps in order. Don't skip them.
- Check for an update. Embark pushes "background patches" constantly. Sometimes your client is just one version behind, and it won't tell you. Restart Steam or your console to force the check.
- The DNS Swap. This sounds techy, but it’s not. Switch your DNS to Google (8.8.8.8) or Cloudflare (1.1.1.1). A lot of the "connection failed" errors are just your ISP's bad routing.
- Reset your Embark ID. Go to the website, log in, and make sure your accounts are linked properly. Sometimes a de-sync here prevents the "Login" phase from completing.
The servers will likely remain "touch and go" through the rest of the winter. Between the PS4 sunsetting and the preparation for Season 10, the infrastructure is being moved around a lot.
Just keep an eye on those red icons. If the whole lobby is complaining in the chat, it's the server. If it's just you, it's time to check your router.
Actionable next steps for players
If you are experiencing persistent lag, your first move should be to manually set your matchmaking region instead of leaving it on automatic. Second, if you're on PC, enable the -dx12 launch option to rule out engine-related stutters that feel like network lag. Finally, if you are still on PS4, start looking into a hardware upgrade or a platform transfer via your Embark ID before the March 18 deadline hits and your access is cut off permanently.