Achievement unlocked.
Valve is beta testing Steam Achievement Sets, a feature that lets developers group a game's achievements into collections.
In an announcement, the company said that games "live longer than ever, continuing to receive updates through new DLC, expansions, and seasons", but that achievements added with new content "can be hard to discover and can accidentally break the completion status of players who have already finished the game".
That's why developers can now specify the number of sets and the purpose of each "to match their game's specific needs", so one game might group its achievements into single-player and multiplayer groups, while another could use eight class-based sets. Players still unlock achievements as usual, and Steam then sorts what they've unlocked into the developer-created sets, which Valve says makes it "easier to see what you have completed and to find other related achievements you can unlock next".
Each set has its own progress bar, and completing one adds a "set complete" trophy to the player's profile. If new achievements are later added to a set, completion is "preserved".
Developers can also create new sets as a game grows, which Valve says makes it "easy for returning players to see what new things they can unlock, while also preserving their prior completion status until they play again".
There are two types of set. Base Game sets "contain achievements that can be earned by all players who play a game", with progress and trophies shown in blue, while DLC sets group achievements that can only be earned once additional content has been bought and are shown in purple.
Interestingly, DLC achievements "are not included in your overall game progress until you have access to the content", so players can track what they have unlocked in new content separately.
Developers can also archive individual achievements or entire sets, which Valve says could suit "season-based games or enabling time-limited holiday achievements". Players who had already unlocked an archived achievement or set "will still see it on their profile", but archived achievements "won't show up on the profile pages of users who missed the unlock nor block their progress toward completing a set or game".
Alongside the sets comes an updated achievements page, reachable from the Games List on the web and from games in the Steam Library, and Search now has filters for specific sets and for locked or unlocked achievements. Players can also compare their progress with "up to three friends, including rare achievements, completed sets, and progress in DLC sets".
Elsewhere, the Perfect Games tab is now called Completed and "expands to show both completed games and games with completed achievement sets", games played via Family Sharing now appear in the Games List, and friends who played a game that way are eligible for friend comparison. Store and Library pages will also show if a game has achievement sets.
The beta is available to players and developers, and Valve says it will "continue making improvements during the beta", adding that "as developers begin using the new tools, you'll start seeing these changes appear for supported games".
Games that have already added achievement sets are Against the Storm, Age of Wonders 4, American Truck Simulator, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Crusader Kings 3, 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.
Valve's PC digital store and social platform set a new user concurrent record last Sunday, clocking up a staggering 43,505,724 users. Meanwhile, Epic Games isn't lifting its foot off the gen-AI pedal, having vibe-coded a new Epic Games Launcher in an attempt to outrun Steam, by far the most popular digital games marketplace on PC.