Windows 11's Xbox app arrives on Arm PCs — just in time for Nvidia's rumored debut with its N1X CPU

• The Xbox app has been ported to Windows 11 PCs with Arm CPUs
• This is another stride forward to make gaming better on Arm laptops, following recent moves to bolster game compatibility
• Microsoft observes that: "Today, more than 85% of the Game Pass catalog is compatible with these PCs."

Microsoft has announced that the Xbox app is now out on Windows 11 PCs with Arm processors, meaning the likes of Copilot+ laptops built around Snapdragon X silicon.

In a blog post, Microsoft noted that: "Players can now download and enjoy a wide range of titles from the Xbox PC app game catalog on Arm-based Windows 11 PCs. Today, more than 85% of the Game Pass catalog is compatible with these PCs."

The firm also said it's working with developers to get more games supported on Arm, and that for those titles which can't be run on these Windows 11 devices, there's always another option – streaming via Xbox Cloud Gaming.

The Xbox app offers a central hub for all your games, acting as a game launcher and tying in social aspects, as well as facilitating cloud gaming, as noted, alongside other neat tricks (such as cross-platform saves for your Xbox and PC).

Analysis: big things could happen for Windows on Arm in 2026

This is certainly a useful step forward for Windows gamers who have an Arm PC, and it's one of a few strides that Microsoft has taken in terms of making Snapdragon X laptops better on the gaming front.

That includes compatibility with quite a few more PC games, with the notable addition of titles that use AVX or AVX2 extensions, which Prism – Microsoft's emulation layer to run x86 (AMD and Intel) games on Arm processors – gained the ability to cope with in the October 2025 update for Windows 11.

On top of that, we saw Epic tune up Fortnite to run on Arm PCs, making the game's anti-cheat tool (EAC) compatible. That has long remained a stumbling block for gaming with an Arm processor. Hopefully, other game developers who use EAC to keep cheats at bay will follow suit. (This includes titles such as Elden Ring).

The porting of the Xbox app over to Arm PCs comes with some interesting timing, as we're about to see new Snapdragon X2 laptops introduced in the near future. On top of that, rumor has it that laptops packing Nvidia's N1X processor could debut in the next couple of months. It's another Arm chip and one that has some seriously powerful integrated graphics. Given that, 2026 could be a very promising year for Windows on Arm devices.

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