Youtube Trending Scraper

Youtube Trending Scraper

Youtube Trending Scraper is a fast, reliable YouTube trending videos scraper that pulls real-time trending lists by country/region and enriches each video with titles, channels, views, likes, category, publish date, thumbnails, and more. It solves the pain of manually checking the Trending tab across markets by automating collection and normalization of public metrics. Built for marketers, developers, data analysts, and researchers, this YouTube trending data scraper scales across multiple countries and categories so you can analyze trends, benchmark competitors, and inform content strategy.

What data / output can you get?

Below are the exact fields the YouTube trending extractor returns to the dataset. You can export to JSON or CSV on Apify.

Field (JSON)	Description	Example value
type	Record type (fixed)	"video"
id	YouTube video ID	"2dmCaK0qslM"
title	Video title	"Top 10 New Games This Week"
url	Canonical watch URL	"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dmCaK0qslM"
description	Video description text	"In this video, we cover..."
duration	Length in seconds (integer or null)	8940
views	View count (string)	"1487513"
likes	Like count (string)	"124690"
comments	Comment count (string)	"1K"
category	Video category	"Gaming"
keywords	Array of tags/keywords	["gaming","trailer","pc"]
isLive	Whether the video is live	false
isFamilySafe	Family-safe flag	true
isRatingsAllowed	Ratings allowed flag	true
isPrivate	Private flag	false
isExclusive	Exclusive flag	false
embedUrl	YouTube embed URL (or null)	"https://www.youtube.com/embed/2dmCaK0qslM"
isEmbeddable	Embeddable flag	true
isUnlisted	Unlisted flag	false
publishDate	ISO 8601 publish date (string)	"2025-10-31T07:06:17-07:00"
uploadDate	ISO 8601 upload date (string)	"2025-10-31T07:06:17-07:00"
relativeDate	Relative date (null placeholder)	null
thumbnails	Array with URL and dimensions	[{"url":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2dmCaK0qslM/maxresdefault.jpg","width":168,"height":94}]
channel.id	Channel ID	"UCE-8FgcXvnAsb2EG1FizSyg"
channel.name	Channel name	"GameSpot"
channel.handle	Channel handle or null	"@gamespot"
channel.url	Channel URL or null	"https://www.youtube.com/@gamespot"
channel.subscriberCount	Subscriber count (string)	"4.81M subscribers"
channel.badges	Channel badges	["Verified"]
channel.thumbnails	Channel thumbnails (empty array)	[]

Note: Some fields may be empty or null depending on availability (e.g., thumbnails may be empty, channel.handle can be null, duration can be null if not detected). Exports are available as JSON or CSV.

Key features

• 🧠 Smart proxy fallback Automatically routes via Apify Proxy with fallback from datacenter to residential when needed. Detects incomplete HTML and retries to improve success rates when you scrape YouTube trending videos at scale.

• 🌍 Multi-country trending coverage Provide multiple 2-letter country codes to collect the YouTube trending list scraper results per region in a single run.

• 🎯 Category filtering by vertical Choose a trending chart: music, gaming, movies, sports, or entertainment to tailor your YouTube trending analytics.

• 🔢 Adjustable video limits Control sample size with maxVideosPerInput. Set to 0 for full lists per country or keep it lean for faster runs.

• 🧩 Multi-source data extraction Merges metadata from page meta/HTML, ytInitialPlayerResponse, and ytInitialData for robust, comprehensive results from this YouTube trending crawler.

• ⚡ Controlled concurrency Processes requests with built-in throttling (semaphores and delays) to balance speed and reliability.

• 🐍 Developer-friendly (Python + Apify SDK) Built in Python on Apify SDK, making it easy to integrate into your pipelines or extend as a YouTube trending scraper script.

• 💾 Easy exports Download your YouTube trending dataset in JSON or CSV for downstream analysis and dashboards.

How to use Youtube Trending Scraper - step by step

1. Sign in to your Apify account and open the Youtube Trending Scraper actor.
2. In the input, add country codes in startUrls (one per line). Use two-letter codes like US, GB, IN, BD, JP. If you paste a youtube.com link with &gl=XX, it uses region XX; unknown text defaults to US.
3. Choose contentType to target a vertical chart: music, gaming, movies, sports, or entertainment. Default is gaming.
4. Set maxVideosPerInput to control how many trending videos to fetch per country. Use 0 for unlimited; default is 10.
5. (Recommended) Configure proxyConfiguration. If omitted, the actor uses Apify Proxy by default. You can also set apifyProxyGroups to RESIDENTIAL when needed.
6. Click Start. The run logs will show inputs processed, how many trending video IDs were found, and progress as videos are fetched and enriched.
7. After completion, open the Dataset tab to view results. Export your YouTube trending videos API-like output to JSON or CSV.

Pro tip: Mix multiple regions and categories to compare what’s hot across markets and verticals using this YouTube trends scraper tool.

Use cases

Use case	Description
Content strategy for marketers	Benchmark what’s trending by region and vertical to inform topics, formats, and thumbnails.
Competitor monitoring	Track channels surfacing on trending lists in your niche and analyze their engagement.
Market research by region	Compare cross-country trends to identify localized interests and opportunities.
YouTube trending analytics	Build a YouTube trending dataset for time-series tracking of views, likes, and categories.
Data enrichment for dashboards	Export to JSON/CSV and feed BI tools for ongoing trend analysis.
Academic & media research	Study diffusion of content types, live vs. on-demand trends, and category breakouts.

Why choose Youtube Trending Scraper?

A precise, production-ready YouTube trending extractor focused on reliability and complete metadata.

• ✅ Accuracy-first extraction: Combines HTML meta, ytInitialPlayerResponse, and ytInitialData for robust coverage.
• 🌎 Regional scale: Collects per-country trending charts with simple ISO codes.
• 🎮 Vertical control: Target music, gaming, movies, sports, or entertainment trending feeds.
• ⚡ Efficient & resilient: Concurrency controls, retries, and proxy fallback keep runs stable.
• 🧑‍💻 Built for developers: Python + Apify SDK foundations for straightforward automation.
• 🛡️ Safe & public: Scrapes publicly available pages without authentication.
• 💸 Export-ready: Download JSON or CSV for fast integration into your workflows.

Compared to browser extensions or unstable scripts, this YouTube trending videos scraper runs on reliable infrastructure with smart proxy management and repeatable output.

Is it legal / ethical to use Youtube Trending Scraper?

Yes—when used responsibly. This actor collects only publicly available information. Follow these guidelines:

• Scrape public pages only; do not target private or unlisted content.
• Ensure your use complies with YouTube’s Terms of Service.
• Respect data protection regulations (e.g., GDPR, CCPA) and use data ethically.
• If in doubt, consult your legal team for edge cases.

Input parameters & output format

Example input JSON

{
  "startUrls": ["US", "GB", "IN"],
  "contentType": "gaming",
  "maxVideosPerInput": 10,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}

Input parameters

• startUrls (array, required): One 2-letter country code per line (US, GB, IN, BD, JP, …). Each line fetches that region’s trending chart. Unknown text defaults to US; a youtube.com link with &gl=XX uses region XX. Prefill: ["US"].
• contentType (string, optional): Trending category to read. Enum: music, gaming, movies, sports, entertainment. Default: "gaming".
• maxVideosPerInput (integer, optional): Max trending videos to keep per country row. Set 0 for unlimited. Default: 10. Minimum: 0.
• proxyConfiguration (object, optional): Route traffic through Apify Proxy to reduce blocking. If omitted, the actor uses Apify Proxy by default. You can specify apifyProxyGroups such as ["RESIDENTIAL"].

Example output JSON

[
  {
    "type": "video",
    "id": "2dmCaK0qslM",
    "title": "Top 10 New Games This Week",
    "status": "OK",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dmCaK0qslM",
    "description": "In this video, we cover the biggest releases...",
    "duration": 8940,
    "views": "1487513",
    "likes": "124690",
    "comments": "1K",
    "channel": {
      "id": "UCE-8FgcXvnAsb2EG1FizSyg",
      "name": "GameSpot",
      "handle": "@gamespot",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@gamespot",
      "subscriberCount": "4.81M subscribers",
      "thumbnails": [],
      "badges": ["Verified"]
    },
    "keywords": ["gaming", "trailer", "pc"],
    "isRatingsAllowed": true,
    "isLive": false,
    "isFamilySafe": true,
    "category": "Gaming",
    "isPrivate": false,
    "isExclusive": false,
    "thumbnails": [
      {
        "url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2dmCaK0qslM/maxresdefault.jpg",
        "width": 168,
        "height": 94
      }
    ],
    "embedUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/embed/2dmCaK0qslM",
    "isEmbeddable": true,
    "isUnlisted": false,
    "publishDate": "2025-10-31T07:06:17-07:00",
    "relativeDate": null,
    "uploadDate": "2025-10-31T07:06:17-07:00"
  }
]

Notes

• status becomes "UNKNOWN" only if no video ID could be resolved.
• thumbnails may be an empty array; duration can be null if not detected.
• channel.handle and channel.url may be null when a handle or canonical URL isn’t found.
• relativeDate is returned as null.

FAQ

Does this use the YouTube Data API?

No. The actor scrapes publicly available web pages to collect trending videos and enriches each item by parsing HTML and embedded JSON.

Can I choose the trending category?

Yes. Set contentType to one of: music, gaming, movies, sports, or entertainment. The default is gaming.

How do I scrape multiple countries at once?

Add multiple 2-letter country codes to startUrls, one per line. Each line pulls that region’s trending chart so you can automate YouTube trending scraping across markets.

How many videos can I collect per country?

Use maxVideosPerInput to control volume. Default is 10. Set it to 0 to return all available IDs for each region’s page.

Do I need to enable proxies?

If proxyConfiguration is omitted, the actor uses Apify Proxy by default. YouTube often limits direct requests, so proxies are recommended. The tool includes fallback from datacenter to residential when needed.

What data fields are returned?

Each record includes video identifiers and URLs, title, description, duration, views, likes, comments, channel metadata (id, name, handle, URL, subscriberCount, badges), thumbnails with dimensions, category, keywords, publish/upload dates, and flags like isLive and isFamilySafe. See the Output Format section for a full JSON example.

Is there a free trial?

This listing includes trial minutes on Apify so you can test before subscribing. Check the actor’s pricing box on Apify for current trial details.

Can it detect live streams?

Yes. The isLive flag indicates whether a video is live content based on page data.

Closing CTA / Final thoughts

Youtube Trending Scraper is built to reliably collect and enrich YouTube trending lists by region and category. With smart proxy management, multi-source extraction, and export-ready datasets, it helps marketers, developers, analysts, and researchers move from manual checks to automated YouTube trending analytics. Run it across multiple countries, fine-tune categories, and export JSON/CSV for your dashboards or pipelines. Start extracting smarter insights from trending videos today with this streamlined YouTube trending scraper GitHub-style workflow—powered by Python and the Apify platform.