Fix: Steam Achievements Not Showing Up in Games

Steam has a neat achievement feature that rewards players for completing specific challenges in games. However, some players have reported issues with Steam’s achievement feature. For those players, achievements don’t show up in games and Steam when they complete required challenges.

Why are the Steam achievements not showing?

There are a couple of reasons why you can’t see the Steam achievements on your games, and we will highlight the most important of them:

• You are playing in offline mode – Steam can only keep track of game achievements for connected players. Thus, Steam’s achievement feature doesn’t work in Offline mode.
• Permission issues – You might need to run games with administrator rights for Steam achievements to show up.
• Conflicting software – Some incompatible programs can generate Steam achievement issues. For example, the Discord software can block achievements and other stats tracking. VPN software and services can also stop Steam’s achievement feature from working.

Steam achievement in-game notifications don’t appear for some players even when the achievement feature is working. The Steam Overlay feature must be enabled for players to see in-game achievement notifications. So, some players also need to check that setting.

How can I fix Steam achievements not showing up in games?

Before going to the actual troubleshooting solutions, let’s get some basic things done because they might fix the problem a lot quicker:

• Restart Steam and your PC. Although it feels useless, sometimes it might be just the fix you need.
• Close some apps and services that are not needed for the game. Other readers were also confronted with games not launching on Steam because of this.
• Make sure your Internet connection is working correctly.

If you have cross-checked these simple methods from the list, let’s start using the solutions below to fix the achievements not showing up issue.

1. Select the Go Online option

1. Open your Steam client software.
2. Click the Steam menu at the top left corner of the window and select the Go Online option.
3. Launch the game and see if now you can see the Steam achievements.

As we’ve mentioned above, the Steam achievements won’t show up if Steam is working in Offline mode so, changing this setting will fix the situation.

2. Make sure that Steam Overlay is enabled

1. Launch your Steam software.
2. Click the Steam menu and select Settings on the menu.
3. Next, click the In-Game tab, then select the Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game checkbox.
4. Press the OK button.

This resolution doesn’t fix Steam achievements not unlocking. It will, however, likely fix Steam achievements not showing up in games when the achievement feature is working.

Read more about this topic

• Balatro is getting a bit easier with its first major update
• Solved: Steam Running Install Script Microsoft VC Redistributable
• Install Windows on Steam Deck: How to do it and Why?
• Fix Palworld Session Search Error: 3 Efficient Solutions
• Palworld Disk Write Error During Launch on Steam [Solved]

3. Configure Steam games to run with admin rights

1. Press the Windows key + E to open File Explorer.
2. Open this default Steam game installation folder (If you have installed Steam in another location, enter the correct path): C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps
3. Next, click a game’s folder there to open it.
4. Right-click the game’s EXE file and select Properties.
5. Select the Compatibility tab and click Run this program as administrator to select it.
6. Press the Apply button, and click OK to exit.
7. Repeat the above steps for all Steam games where the achievements don’t show up for.

4. Remove installed mods for games

1. Bring up the Steam launcher window.
2. Click Community at the top of Steam and select Workshop.
3. Then click Your Files on the right side of the Workshop tab.
4. Next, click Subscribed items to open a list of mods you’ve subscribed to for Steam games.
5. Remove all the listed mods by clicking the Unsubscribe button.

An alternative method is to find the mod’s folder for the game in File Explorer. Then you can manually delete all the mods from a game’s modding folder.

5. Clean-boot Windows 10

1. Right-click the Start button to select Run on the menu.
2. Next, input this command and press Enter to start System Configuration: msconfig
3. If it’s not already selected, click the Selective startup radio button on the General tab, Then deselect the Load startup items checkbox.
4. Make sure the Use original boot configuration and Load system services checkboxes are both selected.
5. Next, deselect the checkbox for the Hide all Microsoft services option on the Services tab and click Disable all to deselect the remaining third-party services.
6. Then press the Apply and OK buttons to exit the window.
7. Press the Restart button to reboot Windows.
8. Thereafter, try playing some Steam games again to see if achievements for them show up.

To restore the original boot settings, simply select the Load startup items and Enable all options in System Configuration.

For further potential resolutions, submit a support ticket to Steam. You can submit a help request via Steam’s support page. First, however, you’ll need to sign in to Steam to do so.

Alternatively, you can add a post about the issue to Steam’s support forum. Log in to the forum with your Steam account. Then click the Start a New Discussion button on the Help and Tips section of that forum. The Steam community might then be able to suggest some potential fixes.

However, give the resolutions above a try before contacting Steam support. Those potential fixes aren’t necessarily guaranteed to work for everyone, but are still worth a try, nonetheless.