Abstract The surface and cross-sectional morphologies of powder metallurgy (PM) Rene95 nickel-based superalloy after 100 h oxidation in the temperature range of 700–1100 °C were investigated. It is shown that oxides nucleate first on the surface of the alloy and form an oxides scale. Afterwards, oxides scale endures decohesion, rumpling, cracking and finally spalling owing to the weak cohesive strength of the scale/alloy interface. The XRD and EDS analyses confirmed that the oxides scale of PM Rene95 superalloy is mainly composed by Cr2O3 at 800 °C and NiCr2O4 is the main spinel at 1100 °C. The subsequent analysis of internal stress verified that cracking and spalling are caused by growth stress and promoted by thermal stress. On these bases, improvement of the cohesive strength of the scale/alloy interface is considered to be the main way to increase the oxidation resistance of PM Rene95 superalloy.