Over 28,000 Steam Users Want Separate DLC Lists for Achievements

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More than 28,000 Steam players want Valve to allow achievements to be tracked separately for a game and its expansions. Currently, Steam combines all achievements, making it difficult to fully complete a game with ongoing downloadable content.

Steam, the leading platform for PC gaming, has consistently added new features over the past twenty years. Last year, Valve focused on improving the shopping experience with several user-friendly updates. These included letting players personalize their game library with custom cover art and logos, and a new feature in December 2025 that alerts users to bundle deals, potentially saving them money. Overall, these improvements have been well-received by the Steam community.

Thousands of Steam Users Want Valve to Split Achievement Lists

Steam users are overwhelmingly requesting a change to how achievements are tracked. While people generally like Steam, many are asking Valve to separate achievements earned in the base game from those unlocked with downloadable content (DLC). Two popular posts on the Steam subreddit, one by Advanced-Climate-574 and another by LuraziusLive, highlighted this issue. The first post received over 28,000 upvotes, and the second used a humorous image to illustrate the frustration players feel when a game update or expansion inadvertently resets their achievement progress.

Steam currently combines achievements for games and their expansions, meaning you need to unlock everything – including content from DLC and updates – to get 100% completion. Some games use different colors for achievement icons to help players understand how to unlock them. For example, in Cyberpunk 2077, the base game achievements are yellow, and those from the Phantom Liberty expansion are red. If Valve approves a recent request, Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty would have separate achievement lists. This would mean you could achieve 100% completion in Phantom Liberty with only 13 achievements.

Splitting Achievements By Expansion Could Save Steam Users From a Big Headache

People responding to the popular Reddit posts also pointed out that splitting up a game’s achievements can protect players from losing progress if features are removed in updates. For instance, in the game Payday 2, some downloadable content is no longer available to buy because of licensing issues, making it impossible to earn all of the achievements. Others suggested dividing achievements based on whether they’re earned in single-player or multiplayer, in case the game’s online servers are eventually shut down.

Steam recently hit a peak of over 42 million players, so any updates to the platform are quickly noticed. Valve has been working to improve user experience, and one potential improvement would be to categorize achievements by things like expansions, seasons, or game modes. This would make it much easier for all players, from hardcore completionists to casual gamers, to earn all the achievements in their favorite games. While this change would require some technical work behind the scenes, it remains to be seen if Valve will implement it.

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2026-01-21 16:04