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[Context]: Thanks to the large collecting area (3 × ∼1500 cm at 1.5 keV) and wide field of view (30′ across in full field mode) of the X-ray cameras on board the European Space Agency X-ray observatory XMM-Newton, each individual pointing can result in the detection of up to several hundred X-ray sources, most of which are newly discovered objects. Since XMM-Newton has now been in orbit for more than 15 yr, hundreds of thousands of sources have been detected. [Aims]: Recently, many improvements in the XMM-Newton data reduction algorithms have been made. These include enhanced source characterisation and reduced spurious source detections, refined astrometric precision of sources, greater net sensitivity for source detection, and the extraction of spectra and time series for fainter sources, both with better signal-to-noise. Thanks to these enhancements, the quality of the catalogue products has been much improved over earlier catalogues. Furthermore, almost 50% more observations are in the public domain compared to 2XMMi-DR3, allowing the XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre to produce a much larger and better quality X-ray source catalogue. [Methods]: The XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre has developed a pipeline to reduce the XMM-Newton data automatically. Using the latest version of this pipeline, along with better calibration, a new version of the catalogue has been produced, using XMM-Newton X-ray observations made public on or before 2013 December 31. Manual screening of all of the X-ray detections ensures the highest data quality. This catalogue is known as 3XMM. [Results]: In the latest release of the 3XMM catalogue, 3XMM-DR5, there are 565 962 X-ray detections comprising 396 910 unique X-ray sources. Spectra and lightcurves are provided for the 133 000 brightest sources. For all detections, the positions on the sky, a measure of the quality of the detection, and an evaluation of the X-ray variability is provided, along with the fluxes and count rates in 7 X-ray energy bands, the total 0.2-12 keV band counts, and four hardness ratios. With the aim of identifying the detections, a cross correlation with 228 catalogues of sources detected in all wavebands is also provided for each X-ray detection. [Conclusions]: 3XMM-DR5 is the largest X-ray source catalogue ever produced. Thanks to the large array of data products associated with each detection and each source, it is an excellent resource for finding new and extreme objects. F.J.C. acknowledges financial support by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through grant AYA2012-31447, which is partly funded by the FEDER programme, and grant AYA2015-64346-C2-1-P. M.T.C. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through grant AYA2010-21490-C02-1. The Italian team acknowledges financial support during the years from the Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Universita’ e della Ricerca (MIUR), from the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) and from the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF).

[Context]: Thanks to the large collecting area (3 × ∼1500 cm at 1.5 keV) and wide field of view (30′ across in full field mode) of the X-ray cameras on board the European Space Agency X-ray observatory XMM-Newton, each individual pointing can result in the detection of up to several hundred X-ray sources, most of which are newly discovered objects. Since XMM-Newton has now been in orbit for more than 15 yr, hundreds of thousands of sources have been detected. [Aims]: Recently, many improvements in the XMM-Newton data reduction algorithms have been made. These include enhanced source characterisation and reduced spurious source detections, refined astrometric precision of sources, greater net sensitivity for source detection, and the extraction of spectra and time series for fainter sources, both with better signal-to-noise. Thanks to these enhancements, the quality of the catalogue products has been much improved over earlier catalogues. Furthermore, almost 50% more observations are in the public domain compared to 2XMMi-DR3, allowing the XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre to produce a much larger and better quality X-ray source catalogue. [Methods]: The XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre has developed a pipeline to reduce the XMM-Newton data automatically. Using the latest version of this pipeline, along with better calibration, a new version of the catalogue has been produced, using XMM-Newton X-ray observations made public on or before 2013 December 31. Manual screening of all of the X-ray detections ensures the highest data quality. This catalogue is known as 3XMM. [Results]: In the latest release of the 3XMM catalogue, 3XMM-DR5, there are 565 962 X-ray detections comprising 396 910 unique X-ray sources. Spectra and lightcurves are provided for the 133 000 brightest sources. For all detections, the positions on the sky, a measure of the quality of the detection, and an evaluation of the X-ray variability is provided, along with the fluxes and count rates in 7 X-ray energy bands, the total 0.2-12 keV band counts, and four hardness ratios. With the aim of identifying the detections, a cross correlation with 228 catalogues of sources detected in all wavebands is also provided for each X-ray detection. [Conclusions]: 3XMM-DR5 is the largest X-ray source catalogue ever produced. Thanks to the large array of data products associated with each detection and each source, it is an excellent resource for finding new and extreme objects., F.J.C. acknowledges financial support by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through grant AYA2012-31447, which is partly funded by the FEDER programme, and grant AYA2015-64346-C2-1-P. M.T.C. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through grant AYA2010-21490-C02-1. The Italian team acknowledges financial support during the years from the Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Universita’ e della Ricerca (MIUR), from the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) and from the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF).

[Aims]: Pointed observations with XMM-Newton provide the basis for creating catalogues of X-ray sources detected serendipitously in each field. This paper describes the creation and characteristics of the 2XMM catalogue. [Methods]: The 2XMM catalogue has been compiled from a new processing of the XMM-Newton EPIC camera data. The main features of the processing pipeline are described in detail. [Results]: The catalogue, the largest ever made at X-ray wavelengths, contains 246 897 detections drawn from 3491 public XMM-Newton observations over a 7-year interval, which relate to 191 870 unique sources. The catalogue fields cover a sky area of more than 500 deg2. The non-overlapping sky area is ∼360 deg2 (∼1% of the sky) as many regions of the sky are observed more than once by XMM-Newton. The catalogue probes a large sky area at the flux limit where the bulk of the objects that contribute to the X-ray background lie and provides a major resource for generating large, well-defined X-ray selected source samples, studying the X-ray source population and identifying rare object types. The main characteristics of the catalogue are presented, including its photometric and astrometric properties., M. Ceballos, F. Carrera and X. Barcons acknowledge financial support by the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia under projects ESP2003-00812 and ESP2006-13608-C02-01. The French teams are grateful to CNES for supporting this activity. In Germany the XMM-Newton project is supported by the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie/Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR) and the Max Planck Society. Part of this work was supported by the DLR project numbers 50 OX 0201, 50 OX 0001, and 50 OG 0502. The Italian team acknowledges financial support from the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), the Ministero dell’ Istruzione, Università e Ricerca (MIUR) and the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) over the last years; they are currently supported by the grant PRIN-MIUR 2006-02-5203 and by the ASI grants n.I/088/06/0 and n.I/023/05/0. UK authors thank STFC for financial support.

[Aims]: Pointed observations with XMM-Newton provide the basis for creating catalogues of X-ray sources detected serendipitously in each field. This paper describes the creation and characteristics of the 2XMM catalogue. [Methods]: The 2XMM catalogue has been compiled from a new processing of the XMM-Newton EPIC camera data. The main features of the processing pipeline are described in detail. [Results]: The catalogue, the largest ever made at X-ray wavelengths, contains 246 897 detections drawn from 3491 public XMM-Newton observations over a 7-year interval, which relate to 191 870 unique sources. The catalogue fields cover a sky area of more than 500 deg2. The non-overlapping sky area is ∼360 deg2 (∼1% of the sky) as many regions of the sky are observed more than once by XMM-Newton. The catalogue probes a large sky area at the flux limit where the bulk of the objects that contribute to the X-ray background lie and provides a major resource for generating large, well-defined X-ray selected source samples, studying the X-ray source population and identifying rare object types. The main characteristics of the catalogue are presented, including its photometric and astrometric properties. M. Ceballos, F. Carrera and X. Barcons acknowledge financial support by the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia under projects ESP2003-00812 and ESP2006-13608-C02-01. The French teams are grateful to CNES for supporting this activity. In Germany the XMM-Newton project is supported by the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie/Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR) and the Max Planck Society. Part of this work was supported by the DLR project numbers 50 OX 0201, 50 OX 0001, and 50 OG 0502. The Italian team acknowledges financial support from the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), the Ministero dell’ Istruzione, Università e Ricerca (MIUR) and the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) over the last years; they are currently supported by the grant PRIN-MIUR 2006-02-5203 and by the ASI grants n.I/088/06/0 and n.I/023/05/0. UK authors thank STFC for financial support.