Available for Xbox Insiders: New ...

Xbox Achievements Finally Get the Refresh They Deserved

Xbox is updating its Achievements system with better animations, game-hiding options, and a 100% completion list. Here's what's changing and why it matters.

Eliza Crichton-Stuart

Eliza Crichton-Stuart

Updated Apr 9, 2026

Available for Xbox Insiders: New ...

Your Xbox achievements list is about to get a lot less embarrassing.

Microsoft confirmed this week that a set of updates to the Xbox Achievements system is now live in testing for Xbox Insiders, with a broader rollout to follow. The changes come directly from fan feedback, according to newly appointed Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma, who posted on X that a dedicated team has been assembled specifically to act on what players have been asking for.

What's actually changing

Three specific updates are coming to the Achievements system. First, the pop-up notifications you get when unlocking an achievement are getting improved animations and icons. Not a massive overhaul, but the current ones have felt dated for years, so this is a welcome visual polish.

The second change is bigger for a certain type of player: you'll now be able to hide specific games from your achievements list. If you downloaded a Game Pass title, played it for 20 minutes, and never touched it again, you no longer have to carry that half-finished game around on your profile forever.

The third update is probably the most satisfying for completionists. Xbox is adding a dedicated list that surfaces every game you've hit 100% completion in. Right now, those hard-earned full clears get buried under everything else. Having them separated out gives players an actual record of their completions, not just a chaotic scroll through every game they've ever touched.

The Game Pass problem this quietly solves

Here's the thing: Xbox Game Pass is genuinely great for trying out games you'd never pay full price for. The side effect is that your achievements list turns into a graveyard of half-played titles with single-digit completion percentages. The ability to hide games addresses that directly, and it's the kind of quality-of-life fix that should have arrived years ago.

For players who take their Gamerscore seriously, this is meaningful. The 100% completion list in particular gives that effort somewhere to live on your profile, rather than disappearing into the noise.

Gamerscore's complicated moment

Xbox was the platform that made achievements a mainstream concept, but Gamerscore has lost some of its cultural weight over the past decade. The rise of the PlayStation 5 and Sony's trophy system pulled a lot of that social energy elsewhere. The Xbox 360 era, when comparing Gamerscores with friends felt like its own competitive sport, feels distant now.

That said, Xbox Achievements still have one advantage Sony hasn't matched: they connect to Xbox Points, which can be redeemed for real store credit. That's a tangible reason to care about your score beyond bragging rights, and it's something PlayStation's equivalent programs have repeatedly failed to replicate at scale.

Sharma's post framing these updates as the start of ongoing fan-driven improvements suggests Microsoft is aware the platform needs to rebuild some of that enthusiasm. These three changes won't flip the script on their own, but consistent, responsive updates tend to compound over time.

For the latest gaming news and gaming guides, keep an eye on what Xbox Insiders report back as this testing phase progresses. The full rollout timeline will tell you a lot about how seriously Microsoft is taking this push. Make sure to check out more:

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updated

April 9th 2026

posted

April 9th 2026

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