Steam Game Data Scraper

Extract comprehensive game data from the Steam Store without needing an API key. Search for games, get detailed information, read user reviews, and check live player counts — all through Steam's public REST API.

Why use this actor?

• No API key required — Steam's public store API is completely open
• Fast & lightweight — pure HTTP requests, no browser needed
• 4 actions in 1 actor — search, details, reviews, and player counts
• Structured JSON output — clean, normalized data ready for analysis
• Handles free-to-play games — includes all games regardless of price
• Respects rate limits — built-in delays to avoid getting blocked

Features

1. Search Games

Find games on Steam by keyword. Returns app IDs, names, prices, platforms, and thumbnail images.

2. Game Details

Get comprehensive information for one or more games: descriptions, developers, publishers, pricing, discounts, genres, categories, release dates, platform support, Metacritic scores, review counts, age ratings, and more.

3. User Reviews

Extract user reviews for any game with filtering options. Get review text, sentiment (positive/negative), helpfulness votes, playtime data, and author information. Supports pagination for large review sets.

4. Player Count

Check the current number of players in any Steam game in real-time. Perfect for monitoring game popularity and trends.

Input Examples

Search for games

{
    "action": "search",
    "query": "civilization",
    "maxItems": 10
}

Get details for multiple games

{
    "action": "game-details",
    "appids": ["570", "730", "1174180"]
}

Common App IDs: Dota 2 (570), CS2 (730), Red Dead Redemption 2 (1174180), GTA V (271590), Elden Ring (1245620), Baldur's Gate 3 (1086940), Cyberpunk 2077 (1091500).

Get recent reviews

{
    "action": "reviews",
    "appid": "570",
    "maxItems": 50,
    "filter": "recent",
    "language": "english"
}

Get negative reviews only

{
    "action": "reviews",
    "appid": "1091500",
    "maxItems": 100,
    "filter": "negative",
    "language": "english"
}

Check live player count

{
    "action": "player-count",
    "appid": "570"
}

Output Examples

Search Result

{
    "appid": 289070,
    "name": "Sid Meier's Civilization VI",
    "price": 59.99,
    "price_currency": "USD",
    "is_free": false,
    "platforms": { "windows": true, "mac": true, "linux": true },
    "type": "app",
    "tiny_image": "https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/289070/capsule_sm_120.jpg"
}

Game Details Result

{
    "appid": 570,
    "name": "Dota 2",
    "description": "Every day, millions of players worldwide enter battle as one of over a hundred Dota heroes.",
    "developers": ["Valve"],
    "publishers": ["Valve"],
    "price": 0,
    "price_formatted": "Free",
    "discount_percent": 0,
    "is_free": true,
    "genres": ["Action", "Free to Play", "Strategy"],
    "categories": ["Multi-player", "Online Multi-Player", "Steam Trading Cards"],
    "release_date": "Jul 9, 2013",
    "platforms": { "windows": true, "mac": true, "linux": true },
    "metacritic_score": 90,
    "total_reviews": 2000000,
    "required_age": 0,
    "website": "http://www.dota2.com",
    "header_image": "https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/570/header.jpg",
    "steam_url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/570"
}

Review Result

{
    "review_id": "12345678",
    "review_text": "Great game with endless replayability...",
    "voted_up": true,
    "votes_up": 42,
    "votes_funny": 5,
    "playtime_at_review": 12000,
    "playtime_forever": 25000,
    "author_steam_id": "76561198000000000",
    "timestamp_created": 1709856000,
    "language": "english"
}

Player Count Result

{
    "appid": 570,
    "player_count": 450000
}

Use Cases

Game Market Research

Track pricing trends, identify popular genres, and analyze the competitive landscape across thousands of Steam games. Compare Metacritic scores with user review sentiment to find undervalued titles.

Sentiment Analysis on Game Reviews

Extract thousands of reviews with sentiment labels (positive/negative) for NLP analysis. Identify common complaints, feature requests, and what players love about specific games. Perfect for game developers looking to improve their titles.

Player Count Monitoring & Analytics

Build dashboards tracking live player counts across multiple games. Monitor the impact of updates, sales, and events on player engagement. Detect trends in game popularity over time.

Price Tracking & Deal Alerts

Monitor game prices and discount percentages. Build automated alerts for when specific games go on sale. Track pricing history for the best deals.

Game Database & Catalog Building

Create comprehensive game databases with details, images, and metadata. Power recommendation engines, comparison tools, or gaming news sites with fresh Steam data.

Competitive Intelligence for Game Developers

Analyze competitor games' reviews, player counts, and pricing strategies. Understand what features and genres are trending. Make data-driven decisions about game development and marketing.

Academic Research

Study player behavior through review patterns, analyze gaming market dynamics, or research the relationship between critic scores and player sentiment for academic papers and theses.

Content Creation

Generate data-driven gaming content for YouTube, blogs, or social media. Find the most reviewed, most played, or highest-rated games for listicles and comparisons.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
action	string	Yes	search	Action to perform: search, game-details, reviews, or player-count
query	string	For search	-	Search term for finding games
appids	array	For game-details	-	List of Steam App IDs (strings)
appid	string	For reviews/player-count	-	Single Steam App ID
maxItems	integer	No	20	Maximum number of results (1-500)
filter	string	No	recent	Review filter: recent, all, positive, negative
language	string	No	english	Language code for reviews

How to Find Steam App IDs

1. Search first: Use the search action to find games and get their App IDs
2. From Steam URL: The number in any Steam store URL is the App ID (e.g., store.steampowered.com/app/570 → App ID is 570)
3. SteamDB: Browse SteamDB for comprehensive App ID listings

Supported Languages for Reviews

english, spanish, french, german, italian, portuguese, russian, japanese, koreana, schinese (Simplified Chinese), tchinese (Traditional Chinese), thai, turkish, polish, dutch, danish, finnish, norwegian, swedish, czech, hungarian, romanian, bulgarian, greek, ukrainian, vietnamese, indonesian, arabic, brazilian (Portuguese-Brazil)

Rate Limits

Steam's public API allows approximately 200 requests per 5 minutes. This actor includes built-in 0.5-second delays between requests to stay well within limits. For large batch operations (many game details or thousands of reviews), the actor handles pagination automatically.

Integration with Apify Ecosystem

• Schedule runs to track player counts or prices over time
• Export to Google Sheets, Snowflake, or BigQuery using Apify integrations
• Chain with other actors — use search results to feed into game details extraction
• Webhooks — get notified when your scrape completes
• API access — call this actor programmatically from any language

API Usage Example (Python)

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")

# Search for games
run = client.actor("cryptosignals/steam-scraper").call(run_input={
    "action": "search",
    "query": "strategy",
    "maxItems": 10
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(f"{item['name']} - ${item['price']}")

API Usage Example (JavaScript)

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

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

const run = await client.actor('cryptosignals/steam-scraper').call({
    action: 'game-details',
    appids: ['570', '730', '1245620']
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach(game => {
    console.log(`${game.name}: Metacritic ${game.metacritic_score}`);
});

FAQ

Q: Do I need a Steam API key? A: No! This actor uses Steam's public store API which requires no authentication.

Q: Can I get reviews in languages other than English? A: Yes, set the language parameter to any supported Steam language code.

Q: What's the maximum number of reviews I can get? A: Set maxItems up to 500. The actor handles pagination automatically.

Q: How accurate are the player counts? A: Player counts come directly from Steam's official API and reflect real-time concurrent players.

Q: Can I use this for DLC and bundles? A: The search returns all types (games, DLC, bundles). Game details work for any valid App ID.

Changelog

• v0.1 (2026-03-20): Initial release — search, game details, reviews, and player count actions