Age of Empires IV Server Maintenance - Thursday, Notes (20th May 2026)
Multiplayer servers across the Age of Empires franchise are going offline tomorrow afternoon for scheduled maintenance. Plan your sessions accordingly.
Routine maintenance is hitting the Age of Empires franchise tomorrow, and if you're planning a ranked session on Thursday afternoon, you'll want to reschedule. According to the official announcement, the platform team is taking multiplayer servers down on Thursday, May 21 at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 21:00 UTC, with expected downtime of one to two hours.
The maintenance covers every current entry in the series across all platforms, so Age of Empires II, III, and the original Definitive Edition are all affected alongside AoE IV on Steam, Microsoft Store, Xbox, and PlayStation 5. Ranked matchmaking locks out one hour before the window opens to avoid mid-match disruptions, but any games still running when maintenance begins will be cut short. The team recommends wrapping up at least ten minutes early to be safe.
This is standard infrastructure upkeep, nothing dramatic. You can still launch the game during the window; you just won't be able to matchmake or access any online features until servers come back up. Everything in the update is listed below.
Full Patch Notes
WHAT: Server Maintenance (Matchmaking Servers)
WHEN: Thursday, May 21 @ 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 21:00 UTC (Countdown)
EST. DOWNTIME: 1-2 HOURS
GAMES & PLATFORMS IMPACTED
- Age of Empires: Definitive Edition (Steam / Microsoft Store)
- Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (Steam / Microsoft Store / Xbox / PlayStation 5 )
- Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition (Steam / Microsoft Store)
- Age of Empires IV (Steam / Microsoft Store / Xbox / PlayStation 5 )
OBJECTIVES
- Routine server updates and maintenance.
DETAILS
This coming Thursday, May 21st, the platform team will be taking the multiplayer servers down for regular maintenance. Please note:
- Ranked matchmaking will disabled exactly one hour before the maintenance window to prevent disruption to newly-formed matches.
- Any matches still in progress at the start of the maintenance window will be disrupted when it begins.
- DURING THE MAINTENANCE WINDOW, YOU WILL STILL BE ABLE TO LAUNCH THE GAME, BUT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO MATCHMAKE OR ACCESS ANY ONLINE FEATURES.
To prevent any interruptions, we recommend wrapping up any games at least 10 minutes before the maintenance window. The downtime is expected to last between 1 and 2 hours. You can watch this thread with any changes to the schedule as they arise, as well as the all-clear when the maintenance is complete.
Thank you for your patience!
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Written by
Nathan LeesGaming journalist and founder of XP Gained. Covering patch notes, breaking news, and updates across 160+ games.
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