In this paper, the formation of the fracture process zone (FPZ) of industrially produced magnesia spinel and magnesia refractories was analysed using digital image correlation (DIC). Compared to pure magnesia materials, the magnesia spinel materials exhibited a higher amount of microcracks, causing a larger FPZ. A critical displacement, where the cohesive stress between the crack faces decreases to zero, is determined by analysing the development of the localized zone. Critical displacement determined from the changes of the FPZ width and length is used to determine the onset of macro-cracking and locate the crack tip. The development of the fracture process zone for a magnesia spinel initiates before reaching the maximum load, and the onset of the macro-crack is in the post-peak region. The FPZ size increases until the formation of a macro-crack takes place, but decreases afterwards. For the magnesia refractory, no pronounced FPZ could be detected.