Though the film was expected to be one of the summer blockbusters of 2005, it performed poorly, both critically and financially. Rotten Tomatoes scores it a "Rotten" 16% as of October 4, 2008. Boo Allen of the Denton Record Chronicle called Ice Cube's version of xXx "a chubby, surly, incomprehensible action hero".
Brian Orndorf of FilmJerk.com compared watching the movie to running "headfirst at top speed into a brick wall". David Hiltbrand of the Philadelphia Inquirer said "the plot swings between pathetically implausible and aggressively stupid". However, some critics liked the film. Mack Bates of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel praised Ice Cube's "trademark charisma and street sensibility", while Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly called it "that rare B movie that’s rooted in gut-level stirrings of power and retaliation".
Paul Arendt of the BBC said, "Viewed on its own trashy terms, it succeeds brilliantly".
Financially, the film was a disappointment with a gross of only $12.7 million on its opening weekend, half of what it was expected to earn. It went on to gross only $26,873,932 domestically and $71,022,693 worldwide. xXx: State of the Union was such a disappointment that it was widely believed to be the death of the xXx franchise. However, it has been reported that Vin Diesel has agreed to star in a sequel, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage.
