In a nutshell: Hackers dealt a critical – albeit temporary – blow to Rainbow Six's in-game economy over the Christmas holiday. Publisher Ubisoft is now working to restore full service and, at least for the moment, appears inclined toward restraint rather than punishment, opting not to ban any users while it investigates what happened.
An unknown party disrupted Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, the online tactical shooter recently relaunched as Rainbow Six Siege X. Ubisoft was forced to take the game's servers offline on Saturday and Sunday after the attacker siphoned off a massive amount of the game's virtual currency, effectively destabilizing the in-game economy.
The attackers reportedly granted each Rainbow Six Siege player roughly 2 billion credits – an amount that would translate to about $13.3 million in real-world value. They also sent defamatory messages to some users. Ubisoft quickly acknowledged the incident but stopped short of characterizing it as a hack or a security breach.
After suspending Rainbow Six services, the ailing French publisher began rolling back changes made before Saturday. As a result, a small number of players may have temporarily lost access to previously purchased items. Ubisoft ultimately reopened the servers to all players while keeping the in-game marketplace closed for the time being.
➡️ Our live tests are now complete and we are opening the game to all players. Please note that you may experience a queue when connecting, as our services ramp up.
– Rainbow Six Siege X (@Rainbow6Game) December 29, 2025
➡️ The rollback is also complete.
🔸 Players who did not log in between December 27th 10:49 UTC and December 29th… https://t.co/mfaAVnvK5G
Rainbow Six Siege X is a free-to-play title, meaning Ubisoft relies on purchases of virtual items for revenue. The Christmas period is crucial, as an influx of new players typically coincides with peak spending – yet many were unable to buy anything while the in-game marketplace remained offline.
The Gamer notes that the incident stands out as an unusually high-profile disruption for a major multiplayer title. Hackers effectively gave players enough currency to drain the game's virtual store multiple times over, and Ubisoft is reportedly not pursuing penalties against players who spend the illicitly granted credits.
While Ubisoft did finally get servers back online, the alleged hack could indicate a significant, previously unknown vulnerability in Rainbow Six Siege. The cybercriminals may have found a way to access the game's backend, raising the possibility they could disrupt the in-game market – or the entire game – again.
Rainbow Six Siege was initially released in December 2015, emphasizing environmental destruction and player cooperation. While sales got off to a slow start, the user base grew significantly after Ubisoft adopted a game-as-a-service model, offering subsequent downloadable content for free.