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Notes -
Pedantry warning.
Sometimes game developers will release a full game, then a few months later release a few additional missions or scenario sold separately from the base game. For decades, the standard term for such content was "expansion pack" or "mission pack". If the expansion pack can be played without having previously bought the base game, it would be referred to as a "standalone expansion/mission pack".
At some point in the 2010s (?), around the time that physical media began being phased out in favour of digital releases, "expansion/mission pack" was deprecated in favour of the new term "downloadable content (DLC)".
This term is stupid.
Any PC game purchased via Steam or similar digital storefronts will be downloaded to the user's PC: it is entirely accurate to describe any base game as "downloadable content" by virtue of it being content which one can download. Likewise games purchased via the PlayStation Store. Even if you buy a PS5 game in a DVD case from a brick-and-mortar shop, it just contains a slip of paper with a download key.
"DLC" is an idiotic term to replace a perfectly descriptive and useful one. The only kind of video game content which can't be accurately described as "downloadable content" is video games released via physical media (discs, cartridges etc.). Bring back "expansion packs".
You're not wrong, but like all renamings and reformattings it was done to evade accumulated expectations about what an "expansion pack" should be. Like when Starbucks used "tall" instead of "large" for their coffees, or the shift to Nespresso pods.
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