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Valve's Achievement Sets give DLC its own progress bar once developers update their games

Valve has put Achievement Sets in the Steam client beta, splitting base-game and DLC achievements into separate sets. Each game needs a developer update first; Valve's list of supporting games, as The Verge printed it, has 17 titles.

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Developers must update games before players get sets How Steam's Achievement Sets reach developers, who must update their games, and players, who get separate set progress and DLC tracking.

Map of who Achievement Sets reach. Developers must update games to add sets, each with a defined purpose. Steam will support seasonal sets developers can archive. Players get a progress bar per set and a 'set complete' trophy. DLC sets stay out of overall progress until the player has the DLC.

Developers must update games before players get sets
WhoHowKindClaim
DevelopersMust update their games to add sets of achievements, each one with a defined purposeconstraint3
Developers of seasonal gamesSteam will support seasonal achievement sets that developers can archivecapability8
Players completing a setEach set has its own progress bar; earning every achievement in it gives a 'set complete' profile trophycapability4
Players without a DLCDLC sets stay out of overall game progress until the player has access to the DLC they are connected toexposure15

What happened

  • Each set gets its own progress bar, and finishing one earns a "set complete" trophy that can be shown on the player's profile.
  • DLC sets stay out of a game's overall progress until the player has access to the DLC they belong to.
  • Developers can also use sets to group single-player and multiplayer achievements, or to run a seasonal set such as a Halloween event.
  • Steam also redesigned the achievements page, which now lets a player compare progress with up to three friends.

Why it matters

  • What it limits constraint Players get the protection only in games whose developers update them and give each set a defined purpose.
  • Who has to decide decision Studios with DLC or seasonal content have to decide whether to define sets in the same update that ships the new achievements.
  • What doesn't add up contradiction Engadget says Valve reports a growing number of supporting games, while The Verge, citing Valve, calls it a handful, so today's coverage is described two ways.

A player who has cleared every achievement in a game can watch that record slip when the developer ships more content. Engadget reports that Achievement Sets are built so that a developer's new additions won't affect a completion percentage [14].

The player does nothing differently. Valve says that in games that support sets, "you still unlock achievements by playing the game as usual" [10]. The sorting happens afterward, on the profile, where base-game sets show in blue and DLC sets in purple [5]. Engadget adds that progress will still show 100 percent when a developer later adds achievements to a set [16].

The work falls on developers. Each game needs an update that defines its sets, and each set needs a defined purpose [3]. Engadget's examples are a single-player group, a multiplayer group and a seasonal Halloween set [7]. Valve is enthusiastic about the seasonal case:

"We think there are a lot of fun ways games can take advantage of the temporary nature this can add, such as adding achievements to season-based games or enabling time-limited holiday achievements," Valve says [9].

Support is limited to the titles on Valve's list, which includes Portal 2 and Forza Horizon 5 [11]. A studio can tell itself that completionists are a large share of its players. The reports include no completion rates, and they do not say what a player's overall figure does once they buy a DLC they did not own, so the size of the audience for this protection is not reported.

We think any studio with dated DLC or seasonal releases should define its sets in the same update that ships the content. The cost is settling each set's purpose before launch [3]. Two yes-or-no questions sort any title: will it add achievements after launch, and do players already hold complete records?

- Yes and yes: define sets with the next content release. This is the case Engadget describes [14]. - Yes and no: define sets before the first player finishes. - No and yes: leave it, because nothing is added that could lower a record. - No and no: leave it.

What to watch

  • Whether Valve moves Achievement Sets from the Steam client beta to the stable client.
  • Whether the list of supporting games grows past the 17 titles Valve named, and whether DLC-heavy games join it.
  • Whether Valve or developers say what happens to a player's overall percentage once they buy a DLC whose set was hidden.

Clarity's read

What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.

Reality

Evidence62
Adoption20
Hype gap+10
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence70
Why these scores

Claim ledger

Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.

  1. [1]

    Valve is introducing a feature called achievement sets that lets developers list different groups of achievements for a base game and its DLCs.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  2. [2]

    Achievement Sets is live in the Steam Client beta.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  3. [3]

    Developers will have to update their games to add specific collections of achievements, each one with a defined purpose.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  4. [4]

    Each achievement set has its own progress bar, and a player can display a 'set complete' trophy on their profile for every set in which they earn every achievement.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  5. [5]

    Base-game achievements and progress bars appear blue on the achievements page, while DLC achievements and progress bars appear purple.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  6. [6]

    Steam redesigned its achievements page, and the new page lets players compare progress with up to three friends, including rare achievements earned and sets completed.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  7. [7]

    Developers can, for example, group single-player and multiplayer achievements or introduce seasonal sets, such as one for a Halloween event.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  8. [8]

    Steam will support seasonal achievement sets that developers can archive.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  9. [9]

    Valve says: "We think there are a lot of fun ways games can take advantage of the temporary nature this can add, such as adding achievements to season-based games or enabling time-limited holiday achievements."

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  10. [10]

    Valve says: "In games that support sets, you still unlock achievements by playing the game as usual."

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  11. [11]

    Valve's list of games that already support achievement sets, as printed by The Verge, is: Against the Storm, Age of Wonders 4, American Truck Simulator, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Crusader Kings III, DREDGE, Euro Truck Simulator 2, Forza Horizon 5, Flock Around, He is Coming, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2, PowerWash Simulator, PowerWash Simulator 2, Team Fortress 2 and Victoria 3.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  12. [12]

    Engadget reports that the platform says there is a growing number of games that already support Achievement Sets.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  13. [13]

    The Verge introduces Valve's list with the words 'A handful of games already support achievement sets, per Valve'.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  14. [14]

    Because Steam separates base-game and DLC achievements, developers' new additions won't affect a player's completion percentage, according to Engadget.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  15. [15]

    DLC achievement sets do not show up in a player's overall game progress until the player has access to the specific DLC they are connected to.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  16. [16]

    Engadget reports that a player's progress will still show 100 percent even if the developer adds more achievements to a set later on.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  17. [17]

    Valve's list of games supporting achievement sets, as printed by The Verge, has 17 titles.

    Derived Supported

Sources

2 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.

  1. engadget.com

    1 article · October 16, 2026

    Steam Achievement Sets will stop DLCs from ruining your 100 percent record
  2. theverge.com

    1 article · October 15, 2026

    Steam can now show game achievements in separate ‘sets’

Topics and entities

Topics

  • PC gaming platforms
  • Steam achievements
  • Downloadable content (DLC)

Entities