For better or worse, Xbox achievements changed the way we see games when they arrived with the Xbox 360. These seemingly meaningless tasks carry serious weight among many gamers, allowing you to show off your skills to the world.What are Xbox achievements, how do you earn them, and what are they for? We'll answer all your questions and more as we explore them.

Xbox Achievement Basics

Xbox achievements are various goals included in almost every Xbox game—this includes Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Xbox 360 titles. They lay out specific tasks that you must complete to unlock them.

Once earned, an achievement awards you Gamerscore points. You'll get as little as 5 Gamerscore for easy achievements, or several hundred for tougher challenges. Most titles include 1,000 total Gamerscore in the base game.

Your Gamerscore appears next to your Gamertag across the Xbox Live platform and gives other players an idea of how many achievements you've earned. However, achievements are totally optional. You don't have to worry about them to complete your game, as they're tracked at the Xbox level and don't have an effect in-game.

Unlocking all of them doesn't earn you anything special, other than the satisfaction of seeing that you earned all 1,000 Gamerscore for that title. Thus, earning achievements is really only for your own enjoyment and bragging rights.

As you might know, achievements aren't exclusive to Xbox. PlayStation has a near-identical feature known as trophies, and Steam has its own achievement system. For multi-platform games, the achievements are identical.

Xbox Achievement Examples

It's up to a game's developer how many achievements are included in a game. Some games have as few as 10 or 12, while others can go up to 50 or more. Sometimes, significant DLC will add additional achievements to a title.

In addition, the types of achievements on offer can vary per game. Some games feature achievements for simply completing the main story, so they don't require you to do much else. Others have achievements that require you to explore the game fully, beat it several times, or complete difficult challenges.

Here's a look at a few sample achievements from recent games to give you an idea of how they usually look:

  • Deadshot (Battlefield 2042): Perform 20 headshot kills in one round.
  • Newcomers (FIFA 22): Play a season with a newly Created Club.
  • Putting on a Show (Forza Horizon 5): Win every Showcase Event.

It's evident that going for achievements requires you to play in all sorts of different ways. Sometimes achievements are tied to finding secrets in-game, while other times they require you to perform the same action many times over the course of the game. Some games award an achievement for completing each stage, while others limit achievements to more difficult tasks.

If you love a particular game, it can be fun to try earning all of its achievements. But if you just want to increase your Gamerscore quickly, there are lots of games with easy Gamerscore to earn.

Viewing Your Xbox Achievements

Your Xbox console will show a quick popup when you earn an achievement. If you earned a rare achievement that few other players have, you'll also hear a special sound and see a diamond icon. Hit the Xbox button when this prompt shows to jump right to the information page for that achievement. (In case this notification annoys you, our Xbox tips guide shows how to adjust the notification location and length.)

At any other time, you can easily view the achievements you've earned on your Xbox. This also lets you see how many other players have earned specific achievements, giving you an idea of how difficult they are.

To view your achievements, press the Xbox button to open the Guide, then use LB and RB to scroll to the Game activity tab (which has a controller icon). Select All achievements to see a list of your games and your achievement progress for each.

Xbox All Achievements

Choose a game to view a list of achievements you've earned so far, as well as information on how you stack up to your friends for that game. Each achievement shows when you unlocked it, how much Gamerscore it's worth, and what percentage of players have earned that achievement.

If you see a diamond icon next to an achievement, that means it's rare because only a small percentage of players have earned it. And for achievements you haven't unlocked yet, some games include a progress bar. This helps track your progress for achievements like Earn 1,000 cumulative kills.

If you'd rather, you can view your achievements on your computer or mobile device. On Windows, download the Xbox app for PC, then click your profile icon on the top bar and choose View profile. From there, scroll down to the Achievements section to see what you've earned.

You can also check out your achievements on the Profile tab of the Xbox app for Android or iPhone.

Xbox Achievements List PC

Using the Xbox Achievement Tracker

If you want to get serious about chasing down achievements, you should use the achievement tracker feature on your Xbox. This lets you follow along with your achievement progress as you play. To use it, first start up a game.

Then press the Xbox button to open the Guide and scroll over to the Game activity tab again. Select the Achievements entry to view them for your current game, then turn the Achievement tracker on.

Xbox Enable Achievement Tracker

Next, you should adjust the available options. Select the Gear icon to change settings, including the tracker's location on the screen. You can track between one and five achievements at a time, and adjust the transparency so the panel doesn't interfere with your game. Hit Done and you'll now have a handy tracker on-screen.

Xbox Achievement Tracker Options

By default, the tracker will show the achievements that you're closest to earning. If you'd rather prioritize different ones, select Progress and choose other criteria. You can also toggle the Lock button switch between unearned and earned achievements.

To make it easier to track specific achievements, you can set some as your favorites. To do so, highlight an achievement in the list and tap X to add it to your favorites, which moves it to the top.

Using Achievement Guides

When you decide you want to earn all the achievements in a game, you can work more efficiently by consulting an achievement guide. The site Xbox Achievements is a fantastic resource for this. Search for a game, and you can check the Achievements list to review the title's achievements and how much they're worth.

Most titles also have an Achievement Guide on their page, which is extremely handy. In these guides, other achievement hunters outline what you'll need to do in order to earn all the achievements for a game.

Cuphead Xbox Achievements Home

The Overview section provides some essential info at a glance:

  • Estimated difficulty rates how tough it is to earn all achievements on a scale from 1-10. Other players vote to decide this.
  • Online achievements require you to play a multiplayer mode, so if the multiplayer mode for the game is dead, it will be tough to earn those.
  • Check the Approximate amount of time and minimum number of playthroughs to see how much of an investment earning all the achievements is.
  • Missable achievements warn you of anything you can permanently miss.
  • Does difficulty affect achievements lets you know whether you must play on a certain difficulty to earn some achievements.

Below, we can see an example overview of Cuphead:

Cuphead Achievement Guide

After the overview, most authors will include general tips for mastering the game. You'll then see a roadmap, which serves as a basic set of steps you'll need to complete everything. For instance, the guide might recommend beating the game on hard mode to get the difficulty-related achievements, then replaying on easy difficulty to pick up the collectibles.

Finally, you'll see information on every achievement. Depending on the game, this could include information like the best time to earn it, pitfalls to watch for, and more. Certain achievements will be marked as story-related because you'll earn them through normal gameplay, while some achievements might be earned in the course of working on another.

Xbox Achievements and Microsoft Rewards

The last important bit of information about achievements is that you can sometimes use them to earn rewards. The Microsoft Rewards program lets you earn points for tasks like buying digital games, completing surveys, and finishing limited-time challenges. Sometimes, these challenges will involve earning a set amount of Gamerscore.

You won't earn big money just through racking up Xbox achievements, but you might as well keep an eye out for any challenges if you plan to go for achievements anyway.

Ready to Earn Some Achievements on Xbox?

You're not an Xbox achievement novice anymore! Now you understand how to earn achievements, where to find guides for maximum efficiency, and even how to track and compare achievements with friends. Now it's time to begin the climb to increase your Gamerscore.

It's important to remember, though, that achievements aren't everything in a game. You shouldn't stress about earning them in every title you play. If you don't want to worry about a particular achievement, just skip it. After all, they only amount to fake internet points. Your enjoyment of a game is a lot more important than completing a list of tasks just for the sake of it.