Valve's achievement overhaul left beta on November 11. Base game and DLC achievements are split, seasonal ones can be retired, and the same update makes the Linux client 64-bit and revamps Remote Play HDR.
The worst feeling in achievement hunting is coming back to a game you finished at 100% and finding out a new DLC knocked you down to 87%. Valve just fixed it. Steam Achievement Sets, the overhaul that entered beta on October 15, went live for every Steam user on November 11, according to Valve’s Steam News post.
The idea is simple. Developers can now group a game’s achievements into sets, each with its own progress bar and its own trophy when you finish it. Valve’s examples include splitting single-player from multiplayer, or a game with eight classes giving each class its own set. Once you complete a set, it stays complete even if more achievements get added later.
Base game in blue, DLC in purple
The biggest change for completionists is how DLC is handled. Base game sets show up in blue and count for everyone. DLC sets show up in purple and don’t count toward your overall game progress until you actually own that content. In Valve’s words, games can now “add new achievements, or new DLC with achievements, without breaking prior game completion.”
Live service games get a tool too. Developers can archive individual achievements or whole sets once they can’t be earned anymore. If you unlocked a limited holiday achievement, it stays on your profile. If you missed it, it simply stops counting against you. Valve says that anytime an achievement can no longer be unlocked, “it should be archived.”
There’s a rebuilt achievements page that pulls overall progress, set progress, Global Stats and search filters into one place, and you can now compare progress with up to three friends using a more accurate total count. The old Perfect Games tab is now called Completed and includes games where you finished any set. Games played through Family Sharing now show up in your Games List too.
Which games support it
This only works where developers add it. At the start of the beta, Valve listed 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. Store and Library pages now flag games that have sets.
Nice to see Forza Horizon 5 and Modern Warfare 4 on that early list. Xbox publishers aren’t treating Steam like an afterthought, and players who chose to buy those games on Steam get the full feature from day one.
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The rest of the update
The same November 11 client update, detailed in the patch notes compiled by GamingOnLinux, is a big one. The Linux Steam client is now a 64-bit app and runs inside a Steam Runtime container, which Valve says should give a more consistent experience across distributions. Remote Play got a major HDR revamp with Automatic, On and Off modes, a brightness slider in the overlay, HDR capture from desktop Linux and macOS, and HDR back on Steam Deck OLED and on Android 15 phones through the beta Steam Link app. Steam Input added GameInput v4 support and fixed the Joystick Power Curve setting in the gyro modes, so if you tuned that setting before, Valve suggests resetting it.
In Big Picture mode, which is also SteamOS Gaming Mode, friend game invites now get their own widget above the chat box instead of being buried in chat history, and message notifications roll up instead of firing one by one. The Steam Deck average framerate data that rolled out earlier this week is now in the Hardware Compatibility dialog too.
This is the kind of quality of life update that makes PC gaming feel better every year. Xbox already has a strong achievement culture, and Steam just closed the biggest annoyance in its own system. Completionists on both sides should be happy.
Image: Valve
Sources
- Steam News (November 11, 2026): Steam Achievement Sets, now available to everyone (includes the October 15 beta announcement)
- GamingOnLinux (November 12, 2026): Steam Update for November 11 brings a 64bit Linux client, Steam Achievement Sets and more
- PCGamesN (November 12, 2026): Valve’s redesigned Steam Achievements are now live for all
- OnPoint 4 Gamers: Steam Now Shows You a Game’s Real Steam Deck Frame Rate Before You Buy
