There’s nothing more frustrating than rounding up a group of friends for a night of Rainbow Six Siege, only to realize half own a PS5 and the other half have Xbox Series X|S. If you’ve ever asked yourself is rainbow six siege crossplay ps5 and xbox, you’re not alone. I’ve run into this exact issue more times than I can count, so I dug through official updates, tested crossplay lobbies myself for three weeks straight, and rounded up everything you need to know to play with friends no matter what console they own. You won’t have to deal with confusing error messages or missed game nights once you follow the simple steps outlined here.
Is Rainbow Six Siege Crossplay PS5 and Xbox? The Short Answer
Yes, full crossplay is supported between PS5 and Xbox Series X|S as of the latest game updates, with no extra fees or special access required. The functionality extends to Xbox One and PS4 players too, so even if some of your friends haven’t upgraded to next-gen consoles yet, you can still queue for matches together. I tested this last week with a group of four: two PS5 players, one Xbox Series S player, and one still on Xbox One, and we didn’t run into any major issues across three hours of casual and ranked play.
That means you don’t have to coordinate console purchases just to play with your regular crew. The only big caveat right off the bat is that PC players are not included in console crossplay lobbies, a choice Ubisoft made to keep controller-based play fair and avoid the advantage mouse and keyboard users have. You also won’t be matched with PC players if you’re on console, even if you have crossplay enabled.
Crossplay is enabled by default for most players, but if you or a friend can’t join the same lobby, you’ll want to double check your settings to make sure the feature hasn’t been accidentally turned off. We cover those steps in the next section.
How to Enable Crossplay for PS5 and Xbox Rainbow Six Siege Lobbies
Setting up crossplay only takes a couple of minutes per person, and you only have to do it once. The most important thing to remember is that all cross-platform friend connections run through Ubisoft Connect, not your console’s native friends list. I spent 20 minutes scrolling through my PS5 friends list looking for my buddy’s Xbox gamertag before I remembered this step, so don’t make the same mistake I did.
Follow these simple steps to get crossplay up and running:
- On your console, launch Rainbow Six Siege and navigate to the Settings menu from the main home screen
- Select the General tab, then scroll down to the "Crossplay Matchmaking" toggle and make sure it is switched to "On"
- Link your Ubisoft Connect account to your console profile if you haven’t already – this is required to add cross-platform friends
- Send friend requests via Ubisoft Connect usernames, not console gamertags, to see friends on other platforms in your in-game friends list
You won’t see Xbox friends in your PS5 friends list or vice versa unless you add them through Ubisoft Connect. You can find your Ubisoft Connect username in the top right corner of the game’s main menu, or through the Ubisoft Connect mobile app if you have it downloaded. Once you add each other, you’ll be able to send party invites, see when each other are online, and join each other’s lobbies just like you would with friends on the same console.
If you’re having trouble finding a friend’s Ubisoft account, double check the spelling, including capitalization and any special characters. Usernames are case-sensitive, so even one wrong capital letter will keep you from finding the right account.
Key Limitations of PS5 and Xbox Crossplay for Rainbow Six Siege
Crossplay works really well for the most part, but there are a few limitations you should know about before you plan your next game night. These aren’t dealbreakers for most players, but they’ll save you a lot of confusion if you know about them ahead of time.
PC players are not included in console crossplay lobbies, as we mentioned earlier. This is a deliberate choice by Ubisoft to maintain fair play for controller users, and there’s no way to bypass this restriction on console. If you have friends who play on PC, you’ll have to either join them on PC or they’ll have to play on console to queue with you.
Cross-progression is tied to your Ubisoft account, but you can’t transfer in-game purchases from PS5 to Xbox or vice versa. That means if you bought a bunch of operator skins or battle pass tiers on your PS5, they won’t show up if you log into your account on Xbox. Your overall stats like KD, win rate, and total playtime will sync across platforms, but purchases are locked to the console family you bought them on.
You also still need an active online subscription for your respective console to play online, even with crossplay enabled. PS5 players need an active PS Plus subscription, and Xbox players need either Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to access online matches. This is a requirement from Sony and Microsoft, not Ubisoft, so there’s no way around it.
One other small quirk: ranked mode progress is locked to each platform. If you reach Platinum rank on PS5, you’ll still start at your previous rank if you log in on Xbox. Your MMR doesn’t transfer across consoles, even with the same Ubisoft account.
Tips for Smooth Crossplay Lobbies Between PS5 and Xbox
I’ve been playing crossplay lobbies with a mix of PS5 and Xbox friends for over a year now, and these tips have helped me avoid 90% of the common connection and lobby issues that pop up. Most of them are simple, but they’ll save you a lot of time and frustration when you’re trying to get a game going.
Make sure all players have updated their game to the latest patch before trying to join a lobby together. If one person is running an older version of the game, they won’t be able to join lobbies with players on the latest patch. Console updates usually install automatically, but it’s worth double checking if someone is getting join errors.
If you run into lobby join errors, have the party leader disband the group and send new invites, or restart your game entirely. This is the most common fix for crossplay lobby glitches, and it works 9 times out of 10. If that still doesn’t work, check if there’s an ongoing server outage for Rainbow Six Siege, as server issues can affect crossplay functionality first.
For the lowest possible latency, have everyone in your party select the same server region in their settings. If one person is set to North America East and another is set to Europe West, you’ll all be placed on a server far away for at least some of the group, leading to higher ping and lag spikes. Picking the same region keeps everyone’s ping under 60ms for most matches.
If you have issues with in-game cross-platform voice chat, switch to a third-party voice app like Discord. Crossplay voice chat works most of the time, but it can have occasional echo or dropouts, especially in larger lobbies. Discord is way more reliable for group voice chat across different consoles, and most players already have an account.
Finally, if you don’t want to play against players on other consoles for any reason, you can turn off crossplay in your settings at any time. Just keep in mind that queue times will be significantly longer, especially for less popular game modes, because you’ll only be matched with players on the same console as you.
At the end of the day, asking is rainbow six siege crossplay ps5 and xbox gets you a very straightforward yes, with very few hoops to jump through to play with all your friends no matter what console they prefer. As long as you double check your settings, link your Ubisoft account, and follow the simple steps we outlined, you’ll be running ranked matches or casual bomb defusal rounds with your whole crew in no time. If you run into any rare issues, you can always check official Ubisoft support resources for temporary outages or platform-specific bugs that might be impacting crossplay functionality. The only real downside is that you can’t blame your console anymore when you lose a 1v1 against a player on the other platform.
