# Metacritic Scraper - Game, Movie & TV Scores (`goat255/metacritic-scraper`) Actor

Scrape Metacritic without a login. Search games, movies or TV shows by name, or fetch titles by slug. Every row has the Metascore, sentiment wording, positive/neutral/negative review counts, user score, genres, platforms, companies and release date.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/goat255/metacritic-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Goutam Soni](https://apify.com/goat255) (community)
- **Categories:** Automation, Lead generation, Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $4.00 / 1,000 titles

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Metacritic Scraper

Get Metacritic critic scores and review breakdowns for games, movies and TV shows at scale, no login or API key. Search titles by name or fetch them by slug, and every title comes back as one clean row with the Metascore, sentiment wording, the positive / neutral / negative review split, user score, genres, platforms, companies and release date.

### What it does

- **Games, movies and TV** - pick the media type and search across that catalog.
- **Critic score with the breakdown** - not just the Metascore, but how many reviews were positive, neutral and negative, plus the sentiment wording (for example "Universal acclaim").
- **Direct slugs** - fetch specific titles you already know.
- **Rich metadata** - genres, platforms, production companies, developers, publishers, rating, runtime and release date.

Common uses: media and games market research, review-trend tracking, building a ratings dataset, and enriching a catalog with critic scores.

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `mediaType` | string | `game`, `movie`, or `tv`. |
| `searchQueries` | array | Titles to search. Example: `elden ring`. |
| `slugs` | array | Fetch specific titles by slug. Example: `elden-ring`. |
| `includeDetails` | boolean | Fetch the full record per match. Default true. |
| `maxItemsPerSource` | integer | Cap per search. Default 10, up to 50. |
| `concurrency` | integer | Titles enriched in parallel. Default 4. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | Optional. Works without a proxy. |

At least one of `searchQueries` or `slugs` is required.

#### Example input

```json
{
  "mediaType": "game",
  "searchQueries": ["elden ring", "hades"],
  "includeDetails": true,
  "maxItemsPerSource": 10
}
```

### Output

Each item is one title.

```json
{
  "mediaType": "game",
  "id": 123456,
  "title": "Elden Ring",
  "slug": "elden-ring",
  "kind": "game-title",
  "criticScore": 96,
  "sentiment": "Universal acclaim",
  "reviewCount": 93,
  "positiveCount": 86,
  "neutralCount": 7,
  "negativeCount": 0,
  "userScore": 7.8,
  "mustSee": true,
  "releaseDate": "2022-02-25",
  "premiereYear": 2022,
  "rating": "M",
  "duration": null,
  "seasonCount": null,
  "genres": ["Action RPG"],
  "platforms": ["PC", "PlayStation 5", "Xbox Series X"],
  "companies": ["Example Publisher"],
  "developers": ["Example Studio"],
  "publishers": ["Example Publisher"],
  "description": "A vast world where open fields with a variety of situations...",
  "image": "https://example.com/cover.jpg",
  "url": "https://www.metacritic.com/games/elden-ring/",
  "detailFetched": true,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-19T09:00:00.000Z"
}
```

Titles with no critic score yet (unreleased or unreviewed) return `null` for score fields, so the shape is always the same.

### Notes

- No login and no API key. Pick a media type, set your titles, and run.
- Turn off `includeDetails` for a faster search-only run when you just need titles and scores.
- The review split is the useful signal: two titles can share a Metascore with very different consensus.

### Privacy

To improve our actors we collect anonymized usage telemetry (run stats and input patterns). No personal account data is collected.

# Actor input Schema

## `mediaType` (type: `string`):

What to search: video games, movies, or TV shows.

## `searchQueries` (type: `array`):

Titles to search. Each match is returned with its critic score and review breakdown.

## `slugs` (type: `array`):

Fetch specific titles directly by their Metacritic slug, e.g. "elden-ring". Skips search.

## `includeDetails` (type: `boolean`):

Fetch the full record for each match: review breakdown, genres, companies and description. Turn off for a faster, search-only run.

## `maxItemsPerSource` (type: `integer`):

Cap on matching titles per search query.

## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many titles to enrich in parallel.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional. This Actor works without a proxy; enable it to spread requests across IPs on large runs.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mediaType": "game",
  "searchQueries": [
    "hades",
    "baldurs gate"
  ],
  "slugs": [
    "elden-ring",
    "hades"
  ],
  "includeDetails": true,
  "maxItemsPerSource": 10,
  "concurrency": 4,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `titles` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searchQueries": [
        "elden ring"
    ],
    "slugs": [],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": false
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("goat255/metacritic-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "searchQueries": ["elden ring"],
    "slugs": [],
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": False },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("goat255/metacritic-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searchQueries": [
    "elden ring"
  ],
  "slugs": [],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}' |
apify call goat255/metacritic-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,goat255/metacritic-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/JWTI5cicKjIij9o5p/builds/BF4NeRlQFfVFfB5sa/openapi.json