Steam beta adds achievement sets that group base game and DLC achievements

Steam achievements can now be grouped into sets

Valve is rolling out a new organisational layer for Steam achievements. According to The Verge, the feature, called achievement sets, lets developers divide a game's achievements into separate groups — for instance one set for the base game and additional sets for each piece of DLC.

For now, the feature lives in the latest Steam client beta.

What changes for players

The act of unlocking achievements stays the same: you play the game as you normally would. The difference comes when reviewing progress afterwards. Instead of one long list, Steam presents the developer-defined sets, which Valve says makes it easier to see what you have already finished and to spot related achievements to pursue next.

Each set carries its own progress bar, and fully completing a set grants a "set complete" trophy that appears on your Steam profile — a small but visible new reward layered on top of individual unlocks.

Seasonal sets can be archived

Sets are not restricted to permanent groupings. Valve says developers can build seasonal achievement sets and archive them once a season ends. The company points to season-based games and time-limited holiday achievements as examples of what the temporary nature of archived sets could enable.

The archiving mechanism matters for long-running games, where event and seasonal achievements have typically piled into a single list permanently, cluttering a player's overall progress view long after the events ended.

A redesigned achievements page

Valve is also refreshing the Steam Achievements page itself. Per The Verge, the updated page shows a summary of your overall progress, progress within each achievement set, and details about individual achievements.

Games already on board

A group of titles already supports achievement sets, according to Valve's list: 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.

The list mixes Valve's own catalogue — Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2 and Team Fortress 2 — with third-party releases spanning simulation, strategy and action games, suggesting the tooling is already in developers' hands rather than theoretical.

Why it matters

Achievements on Steam have historically been a flat, ever-growing list, and that format has strained as games have shifted toward large DLC expansions and seasonal live-service content. Splitting achievements into sets gives developers a way to structure that growth, and gives players a clearer picture of where they stand with a base game versus its add-ons.

The seasonal archiving option is arguably the more consequential half of the feature. It positions Steam for time-limited, event-driven achievement design — holiday events, seasonal challenges — in a way the platform's permanent lists never supported, and archived sets keep the long-term achievement view from ballooning.

The visible "set complete" trophies add another collectible layer that completionist players tend to chase, and studios behind DLC-heavy games get a cleaner way to present add-on content without inflating the base game's achievement list.

Because the feature is still in beta, its behaviour and availability may change before it reaches the standard Steam client.