Xbox Live stops working

Microsoft’s Xbox Live service for playing multiplayer games and sharing digital media was hit by technical difficulties on Tuesday as thousands of users reported difficulties accessing the service.

User-reported issues with the Xbox Live service began to spike around 2:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday, according to the monitoring website Downdetector. As of 2:25 p.m., the site had logged more than 23,000 crash reports, with more than three-quarters indicating login issues. Some Xbox Live users reported seeing an error message saying the service was undergoing “planned maintenance.”

For other Microsoft-operated services, including Minecraft and the Microsoft Store, users have reported numerous errors on Downdetector.

The official Xbox Support account on X posted at 2:55 p.m. ET: “We’re aware that some users have been disconnected from Xbox Live. We’re investigating!” The message directed users to the Xbox Status page — but indicated that there were no ongoing issues. “All services are up and running,” the page said. About 10 minutes earlier, the Microsoft Flight Simulator Support account posted on X: “We’ve received reports of an Xbox Live outage that’s impacting your ability to sign in to your Xbox account. You can check Xbox Live Status for updates soon. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

Xbox Live users have expressed their dissatisfaction with technical issues on social media: