Xbox has a shovelware problem — 40% of 2025 releases were Gamerscore spam, according to a new report

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Xbox Achievements give players points, called Gamerscore, for doing things in games – anything from completing a level to tackling tough challenges. For a lot of people, these achievements make games more fun and give them a reason to keep playing even after they’ve finished the main story.

TrueAchievements, a well-known website for tracking gaming achievements, recently analyzed upcoming Xbox games scheduled for 2025. Their findings reveal that over 40% of these games seem to be focused on letting players quickly earn Gamerscore points.

The Microsoft Store is seeing a growing number of simple, low-quality apps – often called “shovelware.” This problem has been ongoing, but it really exploded in 2025, with these apps making up a large percentage of all new releases.

Sony’s PlayStation has recently started cracking down on low-quality and unwanted games. This naturally leads to the question: should Xbox do the same?

How widespread spam Gamerscore games have become

All thanks to TrueAchievements for their excellent analysis. Their detailed look at the data is really insightful and worth exploring.

In 2025, over 2,200 games came out for Xbox. TrueAchievements estimates that more than 880 of those – around 39% – were low-quality games created simply to let players quickly earn achievements. This is a huge jump from 2024, when there were only 290 of these types of games – a 204% increase.

Last year saw a huge number of new games released, making 2025 a record year for Xbox achievements and Gamerscore. All those new games were a major reason for this increase.

As a completionist, it’s honestly mind-blowing how much there is to unlock in the Xbox ecosystem! Across all the games, expansions, and downloadable content, there are over 64,000 achievements worth a massive 3.5 million Gamerscore! And get this – TrueAchievements figures that over 2 million of that Gamerscore comes from what some people call ‘shovelware’ – those quick, easy-to-complete games. That’s over 21,000 achievements just from those titles! It really shows you just how much content is out there, even if it’s not always the most…substantial.

As a gamer, I was pretty shocked to see how much Gamerscore came from those quick, easy-to-earn games – what some call ‘shovelware’. In 2023, it was around 647,000 points. But honestly, that number feels tiny now when you consider how quickly things have changed and how much more Gamerscore is being racked up by these types of games recently. It’s a really noticeable jump!

What can Microsoft do?

Microsoft could learn from Sony’s recent actions. Sony deleted over 1,000 low-quality games from its store, demonstrating that it’s possible to address this issue when it becomes severe.

Microsoft should be stricter about which games it adds to the Microsoft Store. As TrueAchievements points out, making all ID@Xbox games compatible with Xbox Play Anywhere would help reduce the number of identical games available on both console and PC. This would also discourage players from repeatedly earning achievements by buying the same game multiple times on different platforms.

This situation really shows how much the quality of Xbox achievements has declined. What used to be an enjoyable and engaging system that kept players hooked is now often filled with low-effort games and feels overlooked.

Xbox Achievements were a pioneering feature in gaming, inspiring PlayStation and Steam to create similar systems. However, Xbox’s achievement system now feels outdated, and it needs significant improvements to once again be as engaging and rewarding as it used to be.

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2026-01-25 20:09