Disabling Xbox Game Hubs

Disabling Xbox Game Hubs
Photo by Billy Freeman / Unsplash

I've been an Xbox owner since 2010 starting with an Xbox 360 to my current Xbox Series X. One constant has been how you launch games: you select a game from the home screen with the controller, press the A button and the game starts. Simple! In June 2025, Xbox released a system update that changed that. With the June update the default changed so when you press A...it opens a "Game Hub" window with some information about the game (player stats, achievements, which friends are currently playing and stuff like that). It's...a choice? You can bypass the "Game Hub" screen when launching a game from the "recently played games" list with the X button, which is cumbersome.

It's a weird situation, and I hate it. But, you can disable it!

  1. On your Xbox, go to:
    Profile & system > Settings > General > Personalization > Games & apps.
  2. Under Choose whether game hubs open automatically from the following places. Unselect Recently played list, Groups and Installed Games

And that's it, disabled!