# BoardGameGeek (BGG) Board Game Scraper (`jungle_synthesizer/boardgamegeek-bgg-game-rankings-reviews-scraper`) Actor Scrape BoardGameGeek game data including rankings, ratings, categories, mechanics, designers, and more. Supports hot list, keyword search, and direct game ID lookup. Uses residential proxies to bypass BGG's datacenter IP blocks. - **URL**: https://apify.com/jungle\_synthesizer/boardgamegeek-bgg-game-rankings-reviews-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [BowTiedRaccoon](https://apify.com/jungle_synthesizer) (community) - **Categories:** Games, E-commerce - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing Pay per event This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. 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. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use 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 ## BoardGameGeek (BGG) Board Game Scraper Scrape board game data from [BoardGameGeek](https://boardgamegeek.com/) — the world's largest board game database with 140,000+ games and 6 million monthly active users. Extract game metadata including categories, mechanics, designers, publishers, alternate names, and more. ### What this actor does This actor retrieves structured board game data from BGG's internal JSON API using residential proxy routing to bypass BGG's datacenter IP blocks (the reason the 3 existing BGG scrapers on Apify plateaued at 2 users each). Three scraping modes are supported: - **hot** — Fetch the top-50 hottest board games from the BGG hotness list. Includes the current BGG rank for each game. Best for weekly trend snapshots. - **search** — Search for board games by keyword (e.g. "Wingspan", "dungeon crawler", "deck building"). Returns up to `maxItems` matching games with full metadata. Note: this endpoint uses `boardgamegeek.com` which is protected by Cloudflare; results depend on proxy IP quality. - **thing_ids** — Fetch specific games by their BGG IDs. The most reliable mode — use it when you have a known list of BGG game IDs. ### Input configuration | Field | Type | Description | |-------|------|-------------| | `mode` | string | Scraping mode: `hot`, `search`, or `thing_ids` (default: `hot`) | | `searchQuery` | string | Search keyword — required when mode is `search` | | `bggIds` | array | BGG game IDs to fetch — required when mode is `thing_ids` | | `maxItems` | integer | Maximum records to return (default: 50) | | `proxyConfiguration` | object | Proxy config — residential proxy strongly recommended for BGG | #### Example inputs **Hot list (top trending games):** ```json { "mode": "hot", "maxItems": 50, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"] } } ```` **Search by keyword:** ```json { "mode": "search", "searchQuery": "Wingspan", "maxItems": 20, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"] } } ``` **Specific games by ID:** ```json { "mode": "thing_ids", "bggIds": [174430, 266192, 13, 161936], "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"] } } ``` ### Output format Each record contains: | Field | Type | Description | |-------|------|-------------| | `bgg_id` | integer | BoardGameGeek game ID | | `game_name` | string | Primary English game name | | `alternate_names` | string | All alternate/translated names (pipe-separated) | | `year_published` | integer | Publication year | | `description` | string | Short game description (HTML stripped) | | `image_url` | string | High-resolution game image URL | | `thumbnail_url` | string | Thumbnail image URL | | `min_players` | integer | Minimum player count | | `max_players` | integer | Maximum player count | | `playing_time_min` | integer | Minimum play time in minutes | | `playing_time_max` | integer | Maximum play time in minutes | | `min_age` | integer | Minimum recommended age | | `categories` | string | Game categories (pipe-separated, e.g. "Fantasy|Adventure") | | `mechanics` | string | Game mechanics (pipe-separated, e.g. "Deck Building|Worker Placement") | | `families` | string | Game families (pipe-separated) | | `designers` | string | Game designers (pipe-separated) | | `artists` | string | Illustrators/artists (pipe-separated) | | `publishers` | string | Publishers (pipe-separated) | | `bgg_rank_overall` | integer | BGG overall rank (populated in `hot` mode from hotness list) | | `expansion_of` | string | BGG IDs of base games this expands (pipe-separated) | | `implements` | string | BGG IDs of games this reimplements (pipe-separated) | | `scraped_at` | string | ISO 8601 scrape timestamp | **Note:** Rating and popularity statistics (`average_rating`, `bayes_average_rating`, `num_owned`, `num_ratings`, `weight`, etc.) require BGG's Application Token (their XML API v2 authentication system) and are returned as `null`. The game metadata above is fully available via the JSON API. ### Example output ```json { "bgg_id": 266192, "game_name": "Wingspan", "alternate_names": "Flügelschlag|Крылья|Wingspan: Pájaros para Todos|展翅翱翔", "year_published": 2019, "description": "Attract a beautiful and diverse collection of birds to your wildlife preserve.", "image_url": "https://cf.geekdo-images.com/yLZJCVLlIx4c7eJEWUNJ7w__itemrep@2x/...", "thumbnail_url": "https://cf.geekdo-images.com/yLZJCVLlIx4c7eJEWUNJ7w__itemrep/...", "min_players": 1, "max_players": 5, "playing_time_min": 40, "playing_time_max": 70, "min_age": 10, "categories": "Animals|Card Game|Economic", "mechanics": "Card Drafting|Deck Building|Engine Building|Hand Management|Set Collection", "families": "Animals: Birds|Game: Wingspan Universe", "designers": "Elizabeth Hargrave", "artists": "Ana Maria Martinez Jaramillo|Natalia Rojas|Beth Sobel", "publishers": "Stonemaier Games", "bgg_rank_overall": null, "expansion_of": null, "scraped_at": "2026-05-26T14:30:00.000Z" } ``` ### Use cases - **Board game retailers and cafes** — research inventory, track trending titles, identify popular mechanics and themes - **Tabletop industry analysts** — competitive intelligence for publishers (Asmodee, CMON, Z-Man, Stonemaier) - **Recommendation engines** — seed a game recommendation dataset with categories, mechanics, and designer data - **Market researchers** — track BGG hotness trends weekly; correlate with sales data - **Game designers** — analyze mechanics and categories across top-ranked games - **List import tools** — import your BGG collection or wishlist into spreadsheets or inventory systems ### Technical notes - Uses BGG's internal `api.geekdo.com` JSON API (not the XML API v2 which requires Application Token registration) - DataImpulse residential proxy routes traffic to bypass BGG's datacenter IP blocks - Rate-limited to approximately 1.4 requests/second to respect BGG's infrastructure - `search` mode uses `boardgamegeek.com/geeksearch.php` which is behind Cloudflare — residential proxy quality affects success rate - `thing_ids` and `hot` modes use `api.geekdo.com` which has no CF protection and is highly reliable # Actor input Schema ## `sp_intended_usage` (type: `string`): Please describe how you plan to use the data extracted by this crawler. ## `sp_improvement_suggestions` (type: `string`): Provide any feedback or suggestions for improvements. ## `sp_contact` (type: `string`): Provide your email address so we can get in touch with you. ## `mode` (type: `string`): Scraping mode: 'hot' (top-50 hotness list), 'search' (keyword search), or 'thing\_ids' (specific BGG IDs) ## `searchQuery` (type: `string`): Keyword to search for (required when mode is 'search') ## `bggIds` (type: `array`): List of BGG game IDs to fetch (required when mode is 'thing\_ids') ## `maxItems` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of records to return ## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`): Proxy configuration (residential proxy recommended for BGG) ## Actor input object example ```json { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "mode": "hot", "searchQuery": "Catan", "bggIds": [ 174430, 266192, 13 ], "maxItems": 50, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `results` (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 '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "mode": "hot", "searchQuery": "Catan", "bggIds": [ 174430, 266192, 13 ], "maxItems": 50, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("jungle_synthesizer/boardgamegeek-bgg-game-rankings-reviews-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 '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "mode": "hot", "searchQuery": "Catan", "bggIds": [ 174430, 266192, 13, ], "maxItems": 50, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"], }, } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("jungle_synthesizer/boardgamegeek-bgg-game-rankings-reviews-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "mode": "hot", "searchQuery": "Catan", "bggIds": [ 174430, 266192, 13 ], "maxItems": 50, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } }' | apify call jungle_synthesizer/boardgamegeek-bgg-game-rankings-reviews-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=jungle_synthesizer/boardgamegeek-bgg-game-rankings-reviews-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "BoardGameGeek (BGG) Board Game Scraper", "description": "Scrape BoardGameGeek game data including rankings, ratings, categories, mechanics, designers, and more. Supports hot list, keyword search, and direct game ID lookup. Uses residential proxies to bypass BGG's datacenter IP blocks.", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "HJkx14Vd6egScrd8C" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/jungle_synthesizer~boardgamegeek-bgg-game-rankings-reviews-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-jungle_synthesizer-boardgamegeek-bgg-game-rankings-reviews-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/jungle_synthesizer~boardgamegeek-bgg-game-rankings-reviews-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-jungle_synthesizer-boardgamegeek-bgg-game-rankings-reviews-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/jungle_synthesizer~boardgamegeek-bgg-game-rankings-reviews-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-jungle_synthesizer-boardgamegeek-bgg-game-rankings-reviews-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "mode" ], "properties": { "sp_intended_usage": { "title": "What is the intended usage of this data?", "minLength": 1, "type": "string", "description": "Please describe how you plan to use the data extracted by this crawler." }, "sp_improvement_suggestions": { "title": "How can we improve this crawler for you?", "minLength": 1, "type": "string", "description": "Provide any feedback or suggestions for improvements." }, "sp_contact": { "title": "Contact Email", "minLength": 1, "type": "string", "description": "Provide your email address so we can get in touch with you." }, "mode": { "title": "Mode", "enum": [ "hot", "search", "thing_ids" ], "type": "string", "description": "Scraping mode: 'hot' (top-50 hotness list), 'search' (keyword search), or 'thing_ids' (specific BGG IDs)" }, "searchQuery": { "title": "Search Query", "type": "string", "description": "Keyword to search for (required when mode is 'search')" }, "bggIds": { "title": "BGG IDs", "type": "array", "description": "List of BGG game IDs to fetch (required when mode is 'thing_ids')", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "maxItems": { "title": "Max Items", "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum number of records to return" }, "proxyConfiguration": { "title": "Proxy Configuration", "type": "object", "description": "Proxy configuration (residential proxy recommended for BGG)" } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```