Board Game Oracle Game Metadata And Price Scraper

At a glance: what it does is scrape public Board Game Oracle board game metadata and prices; input examples include genre, gameName, maxGames, and enrichment options; output examples are game rows with rankings, prices, categories, mechanics, and images; use cases include market research; limitations, troubleshooting, and pricing/cost notes are covered below.

Scrape Board Game Oracle board game metadata, prices, ratings, BoardGameGeek IDs, categories, mechanics, publishers, and images by genre or by a single game name.

Use this Actor when you need clean board game data for market research, catalog enrichment, price monitoring, content planning, recommendation databases, or tabletop game analysis.

Main Use Cases

• Build a ranked list of popular games in a Board Game Oracle genre such as Fantasy, Card Game, Wargame, or Science Fiction
• Resolve one board game title, such as Gloomhaven, to its best Board Game Oracle match
• Export board game metadata to CSV, JSON, Excel, Google Sheets, or your own database
• Compare prices and offer counts across public Board Game Oracle listings
• Enrich product catalogs with BoardGameGeek IDs, player counts, play time, age range, ranks, categories, mechanics, designers, artists, publishers, and images

What Data You Get

Each successful row includes:

• Board Game Oracle ID and key
• BoardGameGeek ID when available
• game name and publication year
• player count, play time, minimum age, rank, rating, geek rating, and weight
• categories, mechanics, designers, artists, and publishers
• image and thumbnail URLs
• description
• Board Game Oracle URL
• lowest visible price, currency, store, and offer count
• optional Wikidata ID, official website, and Wikipedia URL when enrichment is enabled

The Actor writes one dataset row as soon as each game is parsed, so partial results remain available if a long run is stopped or times out.

Input

You can run the Actor in two modes.

Field	Description
genre	Board Game Oracle genre/category. If provided, the Actor returns the top ranked games in that genre.
gameName	Single game title to resolve. Used only when genre is blank.
maxGames	Maximum number of genre results to return. Single game-name runs return at most one game.
includeWikidataEnrichment	Optional extra lookups for fields such as official website, Wikipedia URL, or missing metadata. Keep off for the lowest cost.
performanceMode	Use cost for predictable medium and large runs. Use speed for faster small genre batches when you want results sooner.

If both genre and gameName are provided, genre takes priority.

Example Input

Scrape the top 20 fantasy board games:

{
  "genre": "Fantasy",
  "maxGames": 20,
  "includeWikidataEnrichment": false,
  "performanceMode": "cost"
}

Resolve one game by name:

{
  "gameName": "Gloomhaven",
  "includeWikidataEnrichment": false,
  "performanceMode": "cost"
}

Enable extra enrichment when website or Wikipedia fields matter more than lowest possible cost:

{
  "genre": "Science Fiction",
  "maxGames": 10,
  "includeWikidataEnrichment": true,
  "performanceMode": "speed"
}

Example Output

{
  "type": "game",
  "source": "boardgameoracle",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-10T18:13:59.885Z",
  "boardGameOracleId": "5c5c1177cb4c08209f09c53d",
  "boardGameOracleKey": "bHh_KByEbG",
  "bggId": 174430,
  "wikidataId": null,
  "inputSource": "gameName",
  "query": "Gloomhaven",
  "name": "Gloomhaven",
  "yearPublished": 2017,
  "minPlayers": 1,
  "maxPlayers": 4,
  "minPlayTime": 60,
  "maxPlayTime": 120,
  "minAge": 14,
  "ratingAverage": 8.54593,
  "geekRating": 8.30507,
  "weight": 3.9166,
  "rankOverall": 4,
  "categories": ["Adventure", "Exploration", "Fantasy", "Fighting", "Miniatures"],
  "mechanics": ["Cooperative Game", "Hand Management", "Legacy Game"],
  "designers": ["Isaac Childres"],
  "artists": ["Alexandr Elichev", "Josh T. McDowell", "Alvaro Nebot"],
  "publishers": ["Cephalofair Games"],
  "officialWebsite": null,
  "wikipediaUrl": null,
  "imageUrl": "https://bgomedia-19127.kxcdn.com/image/product/source/ppj2nVz07Pt7PG0z3KZQ",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://bgomedia-19127.kxcdn.com/image/product/md/ppj2nVz07Pt7PG0z3KZQ",
  "description": "Gloomhaven is a cooperative tactical combat and dungeon-crawling board game...",
  "url": "https://www.boardgameoracle.com/boardgame/price/bHh_KByEbG/gloomhaven",
  "lowestPrice": 199.99,
  "lowestPriceCurrency": "USD",
  "lowestPriceStore": "Cape Fear Games",
  "offerCount": 1,
  "retrievedVia": "http",
  "status": "ok",
  "errorMessage": null
}

If a lookup cannot be completed, the Actor writes a structured error row with errorCategory, blockedReason, and errorMessage.

How To Run On Apify

1. Open the Actor in Apify Console.
2. Choose a genre or enter a game name.
3. Set maxGames for genre runs.
4. Leave Wikidata enrichment off for the lowest-cost run, or enable it when extra website/Wikipedia fields are important.
5. Click Start.

Results appear in the default dataset while the run is still in progress. The SUMMARY key-value-store record contains final counts, run settings, blocking notes, direct JSON versus HTML fallback counts, and quality counters for rows with BGG IDs, prices, images, and descriptions.

Export Results

After the run, open the dataset and export results as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, or HTML. You can also use the Apify API to stream dataset items into your application.

Python API Example

import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient(os.environ["APIFY_TOKEN"])
run = client.actor("thescrapelab/board-game-oracle-game-metadata-scraper").call(
    run_input={
        "genre": "Fantasy",
        "maxGames": 10,
        "includeWikidataEnrichment": False,
    }
)

items = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items
print(f"Rows returned: {len(items)}")
print(items[0] if items else None)

Pricing

The Actor is designed for low pay-per-result pricing. A 128 MB stress test on 2026-06-10 covered genre runs, single-game lookups, Wikidata on/off, cost/speed modes, duplicate inputs, no-result inputs, runtime guardrails, and a 30-result medium run. All valid result-producing runs succeeded, and useful game rows averaged about $0.028 in Apify platform cost per 1,000 rows.

Recommended launch pricing for client acquisition:

Pricing item	Recommendation
Primary paid event	apify-default-dataset-item for the simplest launch setup. For cleaner billing, remove that automatic event and configure game-result so only successful game rows are charged.
Launch price	$0.00049 per successful game result ($0.49 per 1,000 results)
Promotional floor	$0.00039 per result for a limited launch period
Do not go below	$0.00029 per result until real customer runs confirm blocking and support costs
Platform usage	Pass platform usage to users at launch, then consider including usage once production cost variance is known

Keep Wikidata enrichment off for the cheapest runs. It adds extra public web requests and is best used when official website or Wikipedia fields matter.

Limits And Caveats

• Board Game Oracle genre names must match an existing public category or be a clear unique partial match.
• gameName mode returns the single best public match, not every possible candidate.
• Some fields can be null when Board Game Oracle does not expose them publicly.
• Wikidata enrichment can fill some missing fields, but it is not guaranteed for every game.
• Direct HTTP is used by default for lower cost. Proxy use is reserved for compatibility inputs or future blocking mitigation.
• The default 128 MB memory setting is stable for the tested input matrix. Very large runs should still use realistic maxGames values.

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to try
No rows returned	Check that genre or gameName is filled in.
invalid_input error	Use a known Board Game Oracle genre such as Fantasy, Card Game, or Science Fiction.
Many fields are null	Enable includeWikidataEnrichment for extra public metadata lookups.
Run is slower than expected	Lower maxGames or use performanceMode: "speed" for small runs.
Blocked or rate-limited rows	Retry later or contact support with the run ID.

FAQ

Can I scrape Board Game Oracle by genre?

Yes. Enter a Board Game Oracle genre such as Fantasy, Wargame, Card Game, or Science Fiction, then set maxGames.

Can I search for one board game by name?

Yes. Leave genre blank and enter gameName. The Actor returns the best matching public Board Game Oracle game page.

Does the Actor return board game prices?

Yes. It returns the lowest visible price, currency, store, and offer count when Board Game Oracle exposes those fields.

Does it include BoardGameGeek IDs?

Yes, rows include bggId when Board Game Oracle provides it.

Does it use Wikidata?

Only when includeWikidataEnrichment is enabled. This can add fields such as wikidataId, official website, or Wikipedia URL, but it also adds extra requests.

Is this a BoardGameGeek scraper?

No. It scrapes public Board Game Oracle pages and returns Board Game Oracle metadata, including BoardGameGeek IDs when available.

Can I export the results to CSV or Excel?

Yes. Use the Apify dataset export options after the run finishes, or download results through the Apify API.