Update 2/2/2020: It appears as though the GTA Online servers are down again.
Update 2/1/2020: Some users are still reporting trouble logging in, but it seems that the GTA Online servers have been restored for most. Original story follows.
Grand Theft Auto 5 is the most profitable entertainment product of all time, and it owes a great deal of that success to the popularity of GTA Online, its online multiplayer component. Millions of people play GTA Online through Grand Theft Auto 5, so it's unfortunate that the servers are currently down and there is no ETA on when they may be restored.
The Grand Theft Auto Online servers went down on February 1, 2020, with no reason or update yet given by Rockstar Games. In fact, the Rockstar Games support Twitter page hasn't tweeted since December, and so it's unlikely that fans will get updates there. We will update this post as soon as there's word that the GTA Online services have been restored and players are once again able to log on to the game.
This is just speculation, but it's possible that the Rockstar Games servers are being overloaded by people trying to play GTA Online this weekend. While Grand Theft Auto 5's GTA Online mode is hugely populated on any given weekend, it may be especially busy this weekend. That's because Rockstar Games is giving away $2 million in GTA Online for free to all players who log into the game between now and February 5. It stands to reason that this promotion has caused a huge uptick in the amount of people who usually play GTA Online, causing the server outage.
Of course, there could be a completely different explanation for the GTA Online servers being down. But unless Rockstar Games itself offers an explanation, all fans can do is speculate about why the servers went down and when they may possibly be restored.
In the meantime, it appears these issues are impacting more than just Grand Theft Auto 5's GTA Online mode. Reports online indicate that the Red Dead Online servers are also down across all platforms, and so it seems this is an issue with Rockstar's servers in general. Red Dead Online has been running a similar promotion as GTA Online, giving players free rewards simply for logging in, and it's possible that has played a role in this situation as well.
Stay tuned for more information on the GTA Online servers being down.