Xbox 25th anniversary: what's happening

Xbox 25th anniversary timeline

The anniversary isn't one event but a run of announcements through the second half of 2026. Here they are in order.

Xbox Playback: your 25-year recap

The centrepiece for most players is Xbox Playback, a personal video and set of cards built from your account history. Xbox lists your first Xbox game, total time played, most-played game, top years and longest streak among the highlights. You can watch it from the Playback tile on an Xbox console dashboard or at xbox.com/XBOXPlayback in a browser, and it's available in 15 countries until 31 December 2026.

If you want to know what a particular card means, our Xbox Playback stats explained page goes through them one by one. To turn your total hours into days and a shareable card, use the hours calculator.

Original Xbox games on PC

The other big anniversary story is that original Xbox games now run on Windows PCs through Xbox backward compatibility. These are the console versions, not old PC ports (official info prevails). Xbox says they keep the original gameplay and add upscaling, VSync, anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing.

• 22 July 2026: BLiNX: The Time Sweeper, Conker: Live and Reloaded, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge and Fuzion Frenzy.
• 12 November 2026: 21 more, including Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, TimeSplitters 2 and eleven Star Wars games in all.
• Game Pass: 6 of the 25 are included.
• New achievements: coming to both Knights of the Old Republic games, BLiNX and Conker.

You need Windows 11 and the Xbox PC app. Supported digital licences you already own carry over at no extra cost. The full list, with Game Pass status and PC requirements, is on our 25 original Xbox games on PC page.

25th anniversary badge, gamerpics and theme

On 24 August 2026 Xbox started a separate promotion with a 25th anniversary profile badge, community-designed gamerpics and backgrounds, and a dynamic theme. To get the badge, sign in on an Xbox console, on PC or in the Xbox mobile app before the end of 2026.

On console, you'll find the dynamic background under Settings › General › Personalization › My background › Dynamic background. There's no separate badge for watching Playback that we can find (official info prevails).

The "25 games" PC bundle is something else

Because both involve the number 25 and PC, this one causes confusion. From 2 November to 31 December 2026, buying a qualifying new Windows PC in the US comes with a bundle of 25 modern games, such as Skyrim, Halo and DOOM (official info prevails). That list has nothing to do with the 25 original Xbox games above, which are 2001–2006 console titles.

25 years in four console generations

A quick look back helps explain why your Playback recap looks the way it does.

• Xbox (2001): Microsoft's first console. Halo: Combat Evolved launched with it, and Xbox Live followed in 2002. There were no achievements yet, which is one reason original Xbox history is thin in Playback.
• Xbox 360 (2005): introduced achievements and Gamerscore. For many players, this is where their recap begins.
• Xbox One (2013): brought the Xbox app to Windows and, from 2017, Xbox Game Pass.
• Xbox Series X|S (2020): the current generation, alongside PC, cloud gaming and, in 2026, original Xbox games on PC.

Across those generations, the games players most often name as their most-played in Playback are Halo, Final Fantasy XI and XIV, and Call of Duty. See the Xbox Playback leaderboard for the full picture.

What happens after 31 December

Playback, the badge sign-in window and the PC bundle promotion all end with 2026. Xbox hasn't said whether Playback will stay viewable afterwards (official info prevails), so if you like your recap, save your share card now. Microsoft says more original Xbox games will come to PC but hasn't named any.

FAQ