A bstract The differential yields of charged particles having pseudorapidity within | η | &lt; 1 are measured using xenon-xenon (XeXe) collisions at $$ \sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} = 5.44 $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msqrt> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>s</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:msqrt> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mspace /> <mml:mn>5.44</mml:mn> </mml:math> TeV. The data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.42 μ b −1 , were collected in 2017 by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The yields are reported as functions of collision centrality and transverse momentum, p T , from 0.5 to 100 GeV. A previously reported p T spectrum from proton-proton collisions at $$ \sqrt{s}=5.02 $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msqrt> <mml:mi>s</mml:mi> </mml:msqrt> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>5.02</mml:mn> </mml:math> TeV is used for comparison after correcting for the difference in center-of-mass energy. The nuclear modification factors using this reference, R AA * , are constructed and compared to previous measurements and theoretical predictions. In head-on collisions, the R AA * has a value of 0.17 in the p T range of 6–8 GeV, but increases to approximately 0.7 at 100 GeV. Above ≈6 GeV, the XeXe data show a notably smaller suppression than previous results for lead-lead (PbPb) collisions at $$ \sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02 $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msqrt> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>s</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:msqrt> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>5.02</mml:mn> </mml:math> TeV when compared at the same centrality (i.e., the same fraction of total cross section). However, the XeXe suppression is slightly greater than that for PbPb in events having a similar number of participating nucleons.