Metacritic Scraper

What does Metacritic Scraper do?

Metacritic Scraper extracts rating and review data from Metacritic search results. Search for games, movies, and TV shows by keyword and get structured data including Metascores, genres, platforms, descriptions, and release dates.

Use it for game research, media analytics, review aggregation, entertainment data collection, and content rating tracking.

Use cases

• Game research — Find top-rated games across platforms. Compare Metascores across franchise entries or genres.
• Media analytics — Track critic ratings for movies, TV shows, and games. Analyze score distributions across genres and years.
• Review aggregation — Collect Metacritic data to build rating databases or comparison tools.
• Content discovery — Find highly-rated content by searching keywords. Identify "must-play" and "must-see" titles.
• Market intelligence — Research entertainment industry trends. Compare ratings across platforms and release years.
• Academic research — Gather structured rating data for studies on media reception, genre analysis, and critic consensus.

Why use Metacritic Scraper?

• Multi-type search — Search across games, movies, and TV shows from a single scraper. Filter by content type.
• Rich metadata — Every result includes Metascore, content rating (ESRB/MPAA), genres, platforms, release date, and full description.
• Direct API extraction — Uses Metacritic's backend API for fast, reliable JSON data. No brittle HTML parsing.
• Cover images — Each result includes a direct link to the cover image.
• Must-play/must-see badges — Identifies titles with Metacritic's editorial endorsement badges.
• Pagination support — Scrape up to hundreds of results per keyword with automatic pagination.
• Pay-per-event pricing — You only pay for results scraped. No monthly subscription.

What data can you extract?

Each result in the output includes:

Field	Description
metacriticId	Metacritic internal identifier
title	Title of the game, movie, or TV show
type	Content type (game-title, movie, show)
metascore	Metacritic critic score (0-100)
rating	Content rating (e.g., "E10+", "PG-13", "TV-MA")
releaseDate	Release date (YYYY-MM-DD format)
year	Release year
genres	List of genres (e.g., ["Action", "Adventure", "Sci-Fi"])
platforms	List of platforms for games (e.g., ["PlayStation 5", "PC"])
description	Full synopsis or description
mustPlay	Whether the title has Metacritic's "Must Play" badge
mustSee	Whether the title has Metacritic's "Must See" badge
imageUrl	Cover image URL
url	Direct link to the Metacritic page
scrapedAt	Timestamp when the data was extracted

Output example

{
  "metacriticId": 1300502074,
  "title": "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom",
  "type": "game-title",
  "metascore": 96,
  "rating": "E10+",
  "releaseDate": "2023-05-12",
  "year": 2023,
  "genres": ["Open-World Action"],
  "platforms": ["Nintendo Switch"],
  "description": "An epic adventure across the land and skies of Hyrule awaits...",
  "mustPlay": true,
  "mustSee": true,
  "imageUrl": "https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/catalog/provider/6/3/6-1-939061-13.jpg?auto=webp&fit=cover&height=300&width=200",
  "url": "https://www.metacritic.com/game/the-legend-of-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom/",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-03-03T02:10:00.000Z"
}

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
searchQueries	array	-	List of keywords to search on Metacritic. Each keyword runs a separate search.
contentType	string	"all"	Filter by type: all, game, movie, tv.
maxResultsPerSearch	integer	100	Maximum number of results to return for each keyword.
maxRequestRetries	integer	3	Retry attempts for failed requests.

Pricing

Metacritic Scraper uses pay-per-event pricing — you only pay for what you scrape.

Event	Price
Actor start	$0.001 per run
Result scraped	$0.002 per result

Cost examples:

• 30 results (1 search): ~$0.06
• 100 results (1 search): ~$0.20
• 500 results (5 searches): ~$1.01

No monthly subscription. Platform costs (compute) are included in the per-event price.

How to use Metacritic Scraper via API

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('YOUR_USERNAME/metacritic-scraper').call({
    searchQueries: ['zelda'],
    contentType: 'game',
    maxResultsPerSearch: 30,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach(item => {
    console.log(`[${item.metascore}] ${item.title} (${item.year}) - ${item.genres.join(', ')}`);
});

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN')

run = client.actor('YOUR_USERNAME/metacritic-scraper').call(run_input={
    'searchQueries': ['zelda'],
    'contentType': 'game',
    'maxResultsPerSearch': 30,
})

items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
for item in items:
    print(f"[{item['metascore']}] {item['title']} ({item['year']}) - {', '.join(item['genres'])}")

Integrations

Metacritic Scraper works with all standard Apify integrations:

• Webhooks — Get notified when a scraping run finishes.
• API — Start runs and fetch results programmatically with REST API or official clients.
• Scheduling — Run weekly to track new releases and score changes.
• Storage — Export as JSON, CSV, or Excel. Push to Google Sheets, Slack, or email.
• Zapier / Make / n8n — Connect Metacritic data to thousands of apps and workflows.

Tips and best practices

• Filter by content type — Use contentType: "game" to only get game results, or "movie" for movies only.
• Check mustPlay/mustSee — These badges indicate Metacritic's editorial endorsement for top-rated titles.
• Use metascore for filtering — After scraping, filter results by score ranges (e.g., 90+ for critically acclaimed titles).
• Multiple keywords — Add several search queries in one run to compare across franchises or genres.
• Schedule for monitoring — Run periodically to track new releases and score updates.
• Combine with other scrapers — Pair Metacritic scores with IMDB ratings for comprehensive media analysis.

Limitations

• Search returns results in relevance order only. Sorting by score or date is not supported.
• User scores are not available from the search API — only Metascores (critic aggregate scores).
• The platforms field is only populated for game results. Movies and TV shows have empty platforms.
• Review counts and individual critic/user reviews are not included.
• Only searches Metacritic's catalog — does not scrape individual game/movie/show detail pages.