Grindr Outage Coincides with Charlie Kirk Memorial Service in Phoenix

Phoenix, Arizona – In a strange turn of events, the gay dating app Grindr faced a significant outage in Phoenix just as tens of thousands attended the memorial service for conservative commentator Charlie Kirk nearby. This coincidence sparked a wave of online humor, with some questioning if the conservative crowd had overwhelmed the app’s servers.

The memorial service took place at State Farm Stadium in Glendale on September 22, 2025, and attracted nearly 90,000 attendees, including prominent figures like President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow and newly appointed CEO of Turning Point USA, delivered an emotional speech vowing to continue her late husband’s legacy.

Meanwhile, users in Phoenix reported issues accessing Grindr, with Downdetector, a crowdsourced outage tracker, recording more than 160 complaints around 7 p.m., a sharp increase from the usual two. Similar outages were noted in cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, but the timing and proximity to the memorial raised eyebrows.

Social media platforms like X and TikTok erupted with speculation, with users humorously suggesting that the influx of Republican mourners caused the digital hiccup. One viral post quipped, “It’s the GOP convention all over again,” while another user sarcastically suggested that Grindr should boost server capacity during Republican events.

This is not the first instance of Grindr experiencing unusual traffic during Republican events. During the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, usage increased by 66%, particularly among white male users. A similar slowdown occurred during the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.