HowLongToBeat Scraper

Scrape game completion times from HowLongToBeat.com. Search for any game and get detailed completion data including main story, main + extras, completionist, and all styles times with min/max/median/average statistics.

Features

• Search games by name across the entire HowLongToBeat database (68,000+ games)
• Completion times in hours: Main Story, Main + Extras, Completionist, All Styles
• Detailed stats for each category: median, average, min, max, and poll count
• Game metadata: developer, publisher, platforms, genres, summary, release date, Steam ID
• Community stats: currently playing, backlog, completed, retired, review counts
• Speedrun times with min/max/median stats
• Co-op and multiplayer invested time averages
• Review scores from the HLTB community

Input

Field	Type	Description	Default
searchQuery	string	Game name to search for	(required)
maxResults	integer	Maximum games to return (1-100)	20
proxyConfiguration	object	Optional proxy settings	none

Example Input

{
    "searchQuery": "Elden Ring",
    "maxResults": 5
}

Output

Each result contains:

{
    "gameId": 68151,
    "gameName": "Elden Ring",
    "gameAlias": "Elden Ring Tarnished Edition",
    "gameType": "game",
    "imageUrl": "https://howlongtobeat.com/games/68151_Elden_Ring.jpg",
    "developer": "FromSoftware",
    "publisher": "Bandai Namco Entertainment",
    "summary": "The Golden Order has been broken...",
    "platforms": "Nintendo Switch 2, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S",
    "genres": "Third-Person, Action, Open World, Role-Playing",
    "releaseDate": "2022-02-25",
    "reviewScore": 93,
    "steamId": 1245620,
    "mainStoryHours": 60,
    "mainPlusExtrasHours": 101.2,
    "completionistHours": 135.5,
    "allStylesHours": 105.4,
    "mainStory": {
        "averageHours": 60,
        "medianHours": 60,
        "minHours": 36.5,
        "maxHours": 87,
        "polledAvgHours": 60,
        "polledCount": 1693
    },
    "mainPlusExtras": {
        "averageHours": 101.2,
        "medianHours": 98,
        "minHours": 65.1,
        "maxHours": 239.5,
        "polledAvgHours": 104.4,
        "polledCount": 4859
    },
    "completionist": {
        "averageHours": 135.5,
        "medianHours": 129.3,
        "minHours": 92.3,
        "maxHours": 321.9,
        "polledAvgHours": 141.7,
        "polledCount": 3786
    },
    "allStyles": {
        "averageHours": 105.4,
        "medianHours": 100,
        "minHours": 59.2,
        "maxHours": 306.8,
        "polledAvgHours": 110.8,
        "polledCount": 10338
    },
    "speedrun": {
        "averageHours": 3.8,
        "medianHours": 3.7,
        "minHours": 0.9,
        "maxHours": 10,
        "polledAvgHours": 4,
        "polledCount": 20
    },
    "coopHours": 52.1,
    "multiplayerHours": 28,
    "communityStats": {
        "playing": 445,
        "backlog": 14141,
        "completed": 20405,
        "retired": 1339,
        "reviews": 7204,
        "totalSubmissions": 46516
    },
    "url": "https://howlongtobeat.com/game/68151",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-04-25T00:00:00.000Z"
}

How It Works

1. Authenticates with HLTB's search token system
2. Searches for games using their internal API
3. Fetches each game's detail page to extract rich __NEXT_DATA__ with full completion stats
4. Converts all completion times from seconds to hours
5. Outputs structured data with both quick-reference hours and detailed min/max/median breakdowns

Use Cases

• Gaming analytics: Compare completion times across genres, platforms, or developers
• Game recommendation engines: Filter games by completion time to match player preferences
• Content planning: Estimate coverage time for gaming content creators
• Backlog management: Prioritize your gaming backlog by time investment
• Market research: Analyze game length trends across the industry