Xbox network services experienced a widespread outage on Sunday evening, leaving players unable to sign in, access their digital game libraries, and, for a period, even play games from physical discs.
The issues started on July 26, 2026, and quickly spread across Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and Xbox 360. Players had trouble signing in, opening the Microsoft Store, using apps, and launching games. Xbox’s status page warned that both digital and disc games might not work properly. Some people couldn’t log in at all, while others were kicked out of their accounts. Microsoft also said that anything requiring a sign-in, including most games and social features, could be unavailable.
Early Monday, Microsoft posted on X that its engineers were hard at work trying to resolve the outage. Later, the Xbox status page said the team had figured out what caused the problem and was fixing it. By the middle of the day, things were starting to get better, although some players were still having trouble launching games, signing in, or buying content. The good news was that disc-based games were working again.
The Xbox disruption occurred only days after a widespread PlayStation Network outage that interrupted Sony’s online services for several hours.
The outage happened only weeks after Microsoft’s gaming business laid off 1,600 employees and revealed that another 1,600 jobs would be cut by the end of June 2027.
When this article was published, according to the Xbox Status page, all services were back to normal.
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