TrueAchievements Report Says 40% of Xbox Games in 2025 Were Shovelware

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A recent report from TrueAchievements indicates that many of the Xbox games planned for release in 2025 appear to be simple, quickly made titles focused on letting players easily earn points, rather than providing engaging experiences.

Our analysis shows that almost 40% of the games released on Xbox in 2025 were what we call “easy Gamerscore” games. These are usually cheap and short, designed for players to quickly earn achievements—often 1,000 Gamerscore at launch, with updates later adding up to 5,000.

Data from TrueAchievements highlights a significant rise in the number of games released on Xbox. In 2024, approximately 1,370 games were launched outside of the Xbox Creators program, but that number jumped to 2,262 in 2025 – a 65% increase. The site estimates that around 881 of those 2025 releases – about 39% – were mainly created to offer players easy achievements. This is a dramatic increase of 204% compared to the roughly 290 similar games released in 2024.

The report highlights a trend where some game publishers are releasing the same game, or very similar versions, on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC, each with its own set of achievements. This lets players who enjoy earning achievements get multiple Gamerscore points for playing essentially the same game. TrueAchievements notes that this level of repetition in 2025 is excessive.

The report points to Afil Games as a notable example, having released an impressive 191 games on Xbox in 2025. However, many of these games are quite similar in how they play, mostly differing in their visual appearance, and generally receive low ratings from users – averaging 2.4 out of 5 stars or less. Despite this, Afil Games CEO Antonio Filipe confirmed to TrueAchievements that the company intends to continue releasing games and even plans to add updates to existing titles designed to help players earn more Gamerscore.

A surge of cheaply made, low-quality games, often called “shovelware,” significantly impacted Xbox’s achievement system in 2025. Over 63,500 achievements, worth around 3.5 million Gamerscore points, were added throughout the year – almost twice as many as in 2024. According to TrueAchievements, these spam games contributed over 2 million Gamerscore points, representing about 58% of all Gamerscore earned. Many of these points came from free, easy-to-earn updates specifically designed to attract players who enjoy unlocking achievements.

Although the issue isn’t as widespread on Xbox as on other platforms, it’s becoming increasingly noticeable. Sony has recently taken strong action by removing over 1,000 low-quality, ‘trophy-hunting’ games from its store, showing they’re actively improving what’s available. Microsoft, however, has done less, mainly focusing on stopping publishers from repeatedly re-releasing the same games to keep them prominently displayed.

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2026-01-28 21:05