Can You Host an Arma Reforger Server on Xbox or PS5?

No. Neither Xbox Series X|S nor PS5 can run an Arma Reforger dedicated server. The dedicated server is a separate application that only runs on PC and Linux hosts, and there is no console equivalent.

That is the whole answer, but it usually is not what people actually want to know. The real question is normally "how do my console friends and I get our own persistent Arma Reforger world", and that does have a good answer.

What consoles can do#

A console player can host a player-hosted session — you start a scenario, your friends join you. This works, it is free, and for a casual evening it is fine.

Its limits are structural rather than fixable:

• It only exists while you are in it. Close the game and the session ends for everyone.
• Your connection is the server. Every other player's experience depends on your upload bandwidth and latency, and you are also playing on that machine.
• Progress does not persist the way it does on a dedicated server, so a long-running Conflict campaign is not really viable.
• You are the single point of failure. If you cannot make it on Thursday, nobody plays.

For a group of three or four who play together occasionally, this is genuinely adequate. For anything with a schedule, it is not.

What a dedicated server changes#

A rented server is a separate always-on machine. In practice that means:

• It is up when you are not. People play when they can, not when you are online.
• State persists. A Conflict campaign continues across sessions.
• Your rules stick. Scenario, player cap, first-person enforcement, AI limits, modlist — configured once, applied every time. See config.json explained.
• Nobody's home connection carries the game. The server sits on a datacentre network, so player experience does not depend on the host's upload.
• Console players join it normally, through the same in-game browser, via crossplay.

Getting console players onto it#

Two settings matter, both covered in Arma Reforger crossplay:

1. Enable crossplay. game.crossPlatform: true makes the server accept every platform.
2. Understand the PlayStation mod restriction. PS5 can join modded servers, but PlayStation certification still restricts some mod types. If your group includes console players and you run mods, test the actual modlist on each console platform you support before committing to it.

Then console players find the server in the normal Multiplayer browser — searching part of the server name is faster than scrolling.

Choosing what to rent#

The useful thing to know is that Arma Reforger sizing is not driven by player count the way most games are. AI count and view distance matter far more, so a small group running Conflict with uncapped AI can need more server than a larger group playing Capture & Hold.

For a console friend group, a small server — around 1 core and 4 GB, sized for 8–16 players — is usually the right starting point, and you can grow later. Server requirements has the full sizing logic and the reason buying a very large server is usually the wrong move.

Verify it worked#

1. The server is running and has finished loading its scenario.
2. game.crossPlatform is true and the server has been restarted since that change.
3. A console client finds it in the browser by name, with browser filters cleared.
4. A console client joins successfully.
5. If you run mods, a PS5 client specifically joins and sees the modded content — this is the case most likely to differ from the others.

If console players cannot find a server PC players can see, work through the server browser checklist — a version mismatch presents exactly like a platform restriction.

Trusted references#

• Arma Reforger: Server Hosting — Bohemia Interactive's official hosting documentation
• Arma Reforger: Server Config
• Arma Reforger news — platform and certification announcements