Is the data in an Esri format?
ie if you are using an Excel Spreadsheet or CSV file
Use a tool like Excel to Table (or Table to table - if CSV) and convert the Excel Spreadsheet (into a Esri Geodatabase Table
Once you have done this you could (depending on your data set) use a tool like Split by attributes to make the data more manageable.
Once it is in an Esri Format As an alternative, you can use the Catalog window to select the table that contains the x,y columns and create a feature class.
http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/map/working-with-layers/adding-x-y-coordinate-data-as-a-l...