🎮 OpenCritic Scraper: Scores, Tiers & Critic Reviews

The OpenCritic Scraper extracts game review data from opencritic.com: top critic score, tier (Mighty, Strong, Fair, Weak), percent recommended, review count, platforms, tags and release date for ranked lists, home page lists and games by name, plus full game records (review summary, trailers, store prices) and critic reviews with outlet, score and snippet. Filter by platform, year, tag, minimum score and minimum reviews, or run in only-new mode to watch for new games. Export CSV, Excel, JSON or XML. No login and no API key. Last verified 2026-10-10 against the live site.

OpenCritic ranks games by the average of top critic scores, and its official API is behind a paid key. This actor reads the public pages instead: 18 of 18 small cloud test runs on build 0.1.9 succeeded (median 4.1 seconds). It is built for game stores, deal sites and games media.

🔎 What does the OpenCritic Scraper do?

• Scrapes the OpenCritic browse list by platform (15), timeframe, sort order and tag (39 tags such as Roguelike), with minimum top critic score and minimum review count filters.
• Finds games by name with gameNames, matched against the public OpenCritic sitemaps (about 9,000 games), not its search box, which needs a key. About 94 percent of scored games were found in our sample; the newest may be missing, and gameIds still reaches them.
• Scrapes full game records for any game ID, URL or name, and individual critic reviews with outlet, author, score, snippet and URL.
• Adds the current Hall of Fame and the home page lists popular, deals, reviewed today, recently released and upcoming.
• Only-new mode (onlyNew, stateKey) skips rows you already received, so scheduled runs deliver and charge only new rows.

📋 What data can you extract from OpenCritic?

51 fields plus error, in a fixed order.

Field	Where it appears
recordType	all rows (game, browse-game, hall-of-fame, popular-game, deal-game, review and more list types)
rank, gameId, name, url, searchQuery	list and game rows
topCriticScore, tier, releaseDate, platforms, genres, tags	game rows (score 0 to 100; -1 means Not Rated)
percentRecommended, numReviews, numTopCriticReviews, recentReviewCount	browse and full game rows (not home page list rows)
medianScore, percentile, developers, publishers, platformReleaseDates, isMajorTitle, hasLootBoxes	full game records
description, reviewSummary, reviewHighlights, trailers, storePrices, biggestDiscountPercent	full game records and Deals rows
gameName, outlet, authors, score, scoreFormat, snippet, language, publishedDate	review rows
scrapedAt	all rows

Empty optional fields are left out. The error field exists only on error rows, which are never billed. There is no ESRB rating column.

📊 Sample output of the OpenCritic scraper

A real row from a cloud run on 2026-10-03 (older build; newer columns such as tags and trailers not shown):

{
  "recordType": "game",
  "gameId": 1548,
  "name": "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild",
  "topCriticScore": 95.8,
  "tier": "Mighty",
  "percentRecommended": 95.7,
  "percentile": 100,
  "numReviews": 168,
  "platforms": ["Wii U", "Nintendo Switch"],
  "releaseDate": "2017-03-03",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-04T04:07:35.214Z"
}

💰 How much does it cost to scrape OpenCritic?

Pay per event, read from the live listing on 2026-10-10, only for rows saved.

Event	What it covers	Free	Bronze	Silver	Gold and above
Full game record	One complete game record, including a game found by name	$0.022	$0.0215	$0.021	$0.02
Game summary row	One browse, Hall of Fame or home page list row	$0.01	$0.01	$0.01	$0.01
Critic review	One critic review	$0.01	$0.01	$0.01	$0.01

• 1,000 full game records cost $22.00 on Free ($20.00 on Gold); 1,000 list rows or critic reviews cost $10.00.
• Worked example: 30 list rows cost 30 x $0.01 = $0.30. One game found by name with 3 critic reviews costs $0.022 + 3 x $0.01 = $0.052 on the Free plan.
• You are not charged for error rows, bad game IDs, empty lists, rows skipped by only-new mode, or failed runs. Duplicates are removed before billing.
• The main rival, omkar-cloud, lists $1 per 1,000 games ($2 with full details), so our rows cost about 10 times as much.

🚀 How to scrape OpenCritic in 3 steps

1. Click Try for free.
2. Choose a platform, timeframe and sort, or paste game IDs. Turn on Critic reviews per game for quotes.
3. Click Start and download CSV, Excel, JSON or XML.

⚙️ OpenCritic scraper input

Field	Default	Purpose
gameNames, matchesPerName	empty, 1	Titles to find (Hades 2 finds Hades II); 1 to 5 matches
gameIds	empty	Game IDs or URLs for full records, for example 1548
includeReviews, maxReviewsPerGame	false, 40	Critic reviews per game (1 to 500)
browsePlatform	all	all, pc, ps5, xbox-series-x, switch, switch-2, ps4, xbox-one, quest, psvr, vive, wii-u, 3ds, vita, stadia
browseTimeframe	all-time	all-time, last90, upcoming, or a year such as 2026
browseSortBy / browseOrder	score / default	score, date, num-reviews, percent-recommended; or reverse
includeBrowse, browseTag	true, all	Browse list on or off; one of 39 tags, for example roguelike
minTopCriticScore, minReviews	none	Keep only games at or above these
maxPagesWithoutMatch	15	Stop a tag or filter scan after this many empty pages
includeHallOfFame, homeLists	false, empty	Current Hall of Fame; popular, deals, reviewed-today, recently-released, upcoming
onlyNew, stateKey, resetSeen	false, empty, false	Only-new mode and its saved state
maxItems	10	Maximum rows for the whole run

{
  "gameNames": ["Hades 2"],
  "includeReviews": true,
  "browseTag": "roguelike",
  "browseTimeframe": "2025",
  "minTopCriticScore": 80,
  "maxItems": 8
}

An invalid browseTimeframe fails the run at once with nothing charged. Free users get 10 rows per run; paid users up to 1,000,000.

📦 OpenCritic scraper output

One dataset with four views: Overview, Full game records, Browse and home page lists, and Critic reviews. An empty list succeeds with a status message; if nothing could be read, the run fails. Neither is charged.

⚖️ OpenCritic scraper vs alternatives

Read on 2026-10-10 from the Apify Store listings, Free plan price. "Not stated" means the listing does not show it.

Feature	This actor	omkar-cloud	parseforge
Price per 1,000	$10 list, $22 full record, $10 review	$1 list, $2 with full details	$19 header, $21 README
Critic reviews	Yes, one row per review	Not stated	Not stated
Name search	Yes, from sitemaps, about 94% coverage	Yes, best match	Not stated
Hall of Fame	Current year only	Any year from 2016	Not stated
Monitor mode	Yes (only-new)	Not stated	Not stated
ESRB, catalogs	No	Yes, ESRB and Game Pass catalogs	Not stated

omkar-cloud is about 10 times cheaper per row and covers Hall of Fame by year, ESRB and catalog collections, which we do not. We add critic review rows, only-new monitoring, review summaries, trailers and store prices. parseforge costs about the same as our full record. Pick omkar-cloud for bulk scores at the lowest price; pick this actor for reviews, monitoring and richer records.

💡 OpenCritic data use cases

• Deal sites and games media: add score and tier beside every price, or build roundups with quotes.
• Alerts and publishers: schedule only-new runs on a tag or the upcoming list, and benchmark percentile.

🔌 Run the OpenCritic scraper via API and integrations

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/RecordsData~opencritic-games-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"browsePlatform":"pc","browseSortBy":"score","maxItems":50}'

Schedule runs and send the dataset to Make, Zapier, n8n or Sheets.

🤖 OpenCritic Scraper MCP server for AI agents

AI agents can call this Actor through the Apify MCP server at https://mcp.apify.com?tools=RecordsData/opencritic-games-scraper. The URL loads only this Actor as a tool (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=RecordsData/opencritic-games-scraper"
    }
  }
}

Example agent prompt:

Use the OpenCritic Scraper to list the top 20 PS5 games of 2026 by top critic score with their tier and percent recommended, then fetch 5 critic reviews for the best one. Also find Hades 2 by name and summarize its review summary and trailers.

Tool description: choose this Actor when an agent needs OpenCritic review data: ranked lists by platform, year, tag and minimum score, games by name, home page lists, full game records, or critic reviews with outlet and snippet. It takes the same fields as the Input table.

🛡️ Is it legal to scrape OpenCritic?

The actor reads public pages at a polite rate (about one request per second) and collects no private data. Review OpenCritic's terms and local rules. The official API is the licensed alternative.

❓ Frequently asked questions

How do I get an OpenCritic game ID for the OpenCritic Scraper?

The game ID is the number in the game page URL, for example 1548 in opencritic.com/game/1548/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild. Browse rows also return gameId, so you can browse first and fetch full records second. A full URL works too, so you can copy it straight from your browser.

Does the OpenCritic Scraper need an API key or login?

No. It reads the public pages of opencritic.com, so no OpenCritic account, login or API key is required, while the official OpenCritic API sits behind a paid key. You only need an Apify account to run it, and free Apify users get a 10-row preview.

Why did my OpenCritic scrape return 0 results?

A browse filter with no games, for example a year with no releases yet, or game IDs that do not exist on OpenCritic return an empty dataset. The run then finishes as succeeded with a status message and charges nothing. Check the platform, timeframe and game IDs.

Why did my OpenCritic Scraper run fail?

It fails only when OpenCritic could not be read, because of an HTTP or parse failure, and no rows were delivered. In that case you are not charged anything. Retry later, and if it keeps failing write to the support address below.

What score formats do OpenCritic critic reviews use?

Each critic review keeps its outlet's native scale in the scoreFormat field, and the score field is normalized to a 0 to 100 scale. For example, a 10 out of 10 review from IGN appears as 100 in the score field, so outlets can be compared.

Which platforms and timeframes can I browse with the OpenCritic Scraper?

All platforms, PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Switch, Switch 2, Meta Quest, PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, Wii U, 3DS, Vita and Stadia. Timeframes are all-time, last90, upcoming or a year such as 2026, sorted by score, date, review count or percent recommended.

How many OpenCritic rows can I get for free?

Free Apify users get up to 10 rows per run, enough to check the fields on your own filter. Paid plans allow up to 1,000,000 rows per run. You can also set a maximum cost per run in Apify, and the run stops cleanly at that limit.

Am I charged for duplicates or error rows in the OpenCritic Scraper?

No. Duplicate rows are removed before billing, and error rows, bad game IDs, empty lists and failed runs are never billed. You pay only for rows saved to your dataset: $0.022 per full game record, $0.01 per list row and $0.01 per critic review on the Free plan.

Can I search OpenCritic by game name, and what is the limit?

Yes. Put titles in gameNames and you get a full game record per match, with your typed text in searchQuery. It matches against the public OpenCritic sitemaps (about 9,000 games), and Hades 2 finds Hades II. About 94 percent of scored games were found. A name with no match charges nothing; very new releases may be missing, so use gameIds.

How do the tag and score filters work in the OpenCritic Scraper?

Set browseTag to one of 39 tags, such as roguelike, horror or souls-like, and add minTopCriticScore or minReviews. OpenCritic has no server side tag filter, so the scraper reads list pages and keeps the matching games. It stops after maxPagesWithoutMatch empty pages (default 15, up to 25).

Which OpenCritic home page lists can I scrape?

Use homeLists with popular, deals, reviewed-today, recently-released or upcoming; all are fetched with one request. Deals rows include store, price, base price and percent off. Each row is billed as a game summary row at $0.01 and carries no numReviews or percentRecommended.

What extra data do full game records have in the OpenCritic Scraper?

A full game record adds reviewSummary (one sentence), reviewHighlights (up to 3 pro or con labels), tags, trailers with YouTube links, screenshotUrls, images, storePrices and platformReleaseDates. All of it comes at the same game record price, with no extra event or flag to switch on.

How does the only-new monitor mode work in the OpenCritic Scraper?

Turn on onlyNew and give a stateKey. The scraper remembers the IDs it delivered and skips them on the next run before the item cap and before charging, so an empty run costs nothing. It works for games, list rows and reviews. Use resetSeen to start over.

Which platform bugs were fixed in the OpenCritic Scraper?

Before build 0.1.9, the platform options Xbox Series X, Xbox One and Switch 2 returned no rows, because OpenCritic names them differently in its browse path. They now return data. Home page list rows also showed 0 reviews and N/A recommended; those columns are now left out.

Does the OpenCritic Scraper return ESRB ratings?

No. The ESRB rating is not in any OpenCritic page the scraper reads, so there is no ESRB column and nothing to filter on. The scraper returns tier, score, percentile, tags, genres, platforms and store prices instead, all from public pages.

Can I get the OpenCritic Hall of Fame for past years?

Not with this version. OpenCritic publishes only the current Hall of Fame in its public pages, so includeHallOfFame adds the current list only. For a close substitute, use a year as browseTimeframe, sort by score and set minReviews, which gives the best rated games of that year.

🕹️ Want more game data? Other RecordsData scrapers

Steam Reviews Scraper, GOG Scraper and Epic Games Store Scraper.

📬 Support

Open the Issues tab on this actor's page or write to contact.punkrecordsdata@gmail.com. Custom solutions on request.

Last updated: 2026-10-11