XA File

What are XA files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening an XA file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your XA files.

What is an XA file?

An .XA file is a Maxis XA Audio file.

Maxis XA Audio files are audio data files developed by the video game company Maxis. These files store sound effects, ambient sounds, speech, or music used in games such as SimCity 3000 and early The Sims titles. They are intended for use inside Maxis game engines and are not typically created by standard audio editing tools.

These files are written by games during development. Within the game package, XA files are loaded and decoded in real time by the game's audio engine for playback. They are often converted (decoded) into standard PCM audio (such as WAV) when editing or archiving, because most modern tools cannot write XA-formatted audio yet. XA files preserve lower file size while retaining acceptable sound quality by using lossy compression.

XA uses a variant of EA ADPCM (adaptive differential pulse-code modulation) to compress the audio stream. XA files start with a header that includes a four-byte identifier ("XAI\0" for speech/sound effects or "XAJ\0" for music), followed by fields defining output size, channels, sample rate, bits per sample, byte rate, and data alignment. After the header comes EA ADPCM compressed data.

How to open XA files

We have identified one XA opener that is compatible with this specific type of XA file.

Programs that open Maxis XA Audio files

Last updated: August 14, 2026

Various apps that use files with this extension

These apps are known to open certain types of XA files. Remember, different programs may use XA files for different purposes, so you may need to try out a few of them to be able to open your specific file.

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