The Xbox October 2026 console update began rolling out on October 28, and its headline feature is Mythic Achievements. The feature, first offered to Xbox Insiders in late September, now reaches every Xbox console alongside nine other changes covering Remote Play quality, save storage, and how the dashboard looks and behaves. The release covers the full Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One install base. The build carries OS version 10.0.26100.9647 (xb_flt_2610ge.261021-2200), according to the official notes on Xbox’s system update page.
Mythic Achievements reward finishing the base game
Mythic Achievements mark a player who unlocks every achievement in a game’s original list. Achievements added later through DLC or free updates do not count. A player who completed a game at launch keeps Mythic status even when new achievements arrive afterward, and once earned, that status is permanent. A game that shipped with 30 achievements and later added 15 more through expansions still requires only the original 30 for Mythic status.
Xbox Insiders got an early look at Mythic Achievements at the end of September, and the public build now carries the same feature. Each game’s achievement list gets a progress bar toward Mythic status, and a running Mythic total appears on the Gaming tab of a player profile. The progress bar shows how many of a game’s original achievements remain.
Achievement sorting changed as well. Beyond the default “last played” view, players can sort by game name, completion percentage, Gamerscore earned, and number of achievements unlocked, and every sort can run in ascending or descending order. A large library becomes easier to scan, since a player can reorder the list to find the games closest to completion or the ones with the most unearned Gamerscore.
Startup animation and a decluttered Home
Xbox consoles can now pick their own startup animation, with options spanning the Xbox One era through the current generation. The setting lives under Settings > System > Startup, and the existing toggle for playing the animation with or without sound moved to the same page. The change follows the updated startup animation Microsoft shipped in the June update.
The dashboard itself gets two changes aimed at cutting clutter. Players can remove any game or app from the recent list using the controller’s menu button, and pressing the right thumbstick on Home fades the tiles away to show the background in full. Microsoft calls the latter Immersive Background mode, and any button press brings the standard Home back.
The badge section on a profile now offers a more detailed breakdown of how a badge was earned, and players can open another profile to see the path that person took to theirs.
Remote Play steps up to 1440p on Series X|S
Remote Play now streams at up to 1440p with higher video bitrates on Xbox Series X|S, while Xbox One consoles keep their previous ceiling.
The higher bitrate should reduce the smearing that makes fast games hard to follow over a remote connection, though the actual gain still depends on the home network. Microsoft notes that when streaming quality is set to Auto, Remote Play picks the highest resolution and bitrate the device and connection support, even if the settings page shows a lower number. The console’s display resolution also needs to sit at 1440p or 4K UHD in Settings > General > TV & display options for the improvement to take effect.
Save management and disc-to-digital licensing
Players can now view, sort, and delete local game saves that are not in use, one at a time or all at once, to free up storage. The feature targets consoles running low on internal space, where old saves are the quickest thing to reclaim.
The disc-to-digital license portal changed too. Checking which disc-based licenses are no longer accessible used to mean opening a web page; the console now handles it natively under Settings > General > Personalization > Games & apps, listing the licenses a player no longer holds access to without the browser step.
Cloud gaming, local search, and party chat groundwork
Games played through Xbox Cloud Gaming now appear automatically in My games & apps, which means a title streamed last week shows up next to the installed library the next time the console is opened. Downloads can also continue in the background during a cloud streaming session when network conditions allow, with speeds adjusting to protect stream quality.
Local search now works inside the full My games & apps library, official club achievement lists, and the Gaming tab of a profile. It runs alongside the existing filters and sort options, and a player can narrow a list first and then search within it. Microsoft also says the update reworks party chat infrastructure for future reliability and security.
From Insider preview to public build
Mythic Achievements, 1440p Remote Play, and startup animation choices all sat in the Insider ring for weeks before this build. Public players who skip the program get them now, after the preview crowd has already found the worst of the bugs. The June update followed the same path, when Insiders got faster boot and Gamerscore badges ahead of everyone else.
The update follows a smaller October 7 release (OS 10.0.26100.9445) that shipped only miscellaneous fixes, so this is the month’s main feature drop. Consoles set to keep themselves up to date will install it automatically, and anyone who wants the changes sooner can pull them manually from Settings > System > Updates.
