A new report from achievement-tracking site TrueAchievements suggests that a significant portion of Xbox’s 2025 release slate was dominated by low-effort “shovelware” games designed primarily to farm Gamerscore rather than offer meaningful gameplay.
According to the analysis, nearly 40 percent of all games released on Xbox in 2025 fell into the category of “spam easy Gamerscore” titles. These are typically inexpensive, quickly completed games built around achievements that can be unlocked in minutes, often launching with the standard 1,000 Gamerscore and later receiving updates that push their totals as high as 5,000.
TrueAchievements’ data shows just how sharply the problem has grown. In 2024, around 1,370 games launched on Xbox outside of the Xbox Creators program. In 2025, that number surged to 2,262 releases — a 65 percent increase year over year. Of those, the site estimates roughly 881 games, or 39 percent, were designed primarily to deliver easy achievements. That represents a 204 percent increase compared to 2024, which saw about 290 similar titles.
PlayStation has purged over 1,000 games from its storefront, and it's not exactly clear why these titles were pulled from sale.
The report points to a growing strategy among some publishers: releasing the same...
