# BoardGameGeek Scraper - Board Game Data & Ratings (`lulzasaur/boardgamegeek-scraper`) Actor

Scrape BoardGameGeek for board game data, ratings, rankings, mechanics, designers, and player counts via BGG XML API2. Browse hot games or search.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/lulzasaur/boardgamegeek-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [lulz bot](https://apify.com/lulzasaur) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce
- **Stats:** 3 total users, 2 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $10.00 / 1,000 results

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/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#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

## BoardGameGeek Scraper

Scrape [BoardGameGeek](https://boardgamegeek.com/) (BGG) for comprehensive board game data using the official BGG XML API2.

### Features

- **Hot Games**: Scrape the trending/hot games list
- **Search**: Search for board games by name
- **Game Detail**: Look up specific games by BGG ID
- **Rich Data**: Ratings, rankings, mechanics, categories, designers, player counts, play times, weight ratings
- **Batch Processing**: Efficiently fetches up to 20 games per API call

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `mode` | string | `hot` (default), `search`, or `game-detail` |
| `searchQueries` | string\[] | Search terms or BGG game IDs |
| `maxResults` | integer | Max results per query (default: 50) |
| `includeStats` | boolean | Include detailed statistics (default: true) |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | Optional proxy settings |

### Output

Each result contains:

```json
{
    "bggId": 174430,
    "name": "Gloomhaven",
    "yearPublished": 2017,
    "description": "Gloomhaven is a game of Euro-inspired...",
    "minPlayers": 1,
    "maxPlayers": 4,
    "playingTime": 120,
    "averageRating": 8.62,
    "usersRated": 52341,
    "bggRank": 2,
    "averageWeight": 3.87,
    "categories": ["Adventure", "Exploration", "Fantasy"],
    "mechanics": ["Action Queue", "Campaign", "Deck Building"],
    "designers": ["Isaac Childres"],
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://.../",
    "url": "https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/174430"
}
```

### Use Cases

- Board game price comparison tools
- Collection management apps
- Game recommendation engines
- Market research for tabletop industry
- Board game review aggregation

### Cost

This actor uses pay-per-event pricing at $0.005 per result.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

What to scrape: hot games list, search for games, or look up specific game IDs.

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

Search terms (for search mode) or BGG game IDs (for game-detail mode). e.g. \["Catan", "Pandemic"] or \["174430", "13"]

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of results per query (1-500).

## `includeStats` (type: `boolean`):

Include detailed statistics (ratings distribution, weight, rankings). Adds stats=1 to API calls.

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

Optional proxy configuration.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "hot",
  "searchQueries": [
    "Catan"
  ],
  "maxResults": 50,
  "includeStats": true
}
```

# 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": [
        "Catan"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("lulzasaur/boardgamegeek-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": ["Catan"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("lulzasaur/boardgamegeek-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": [
    "Catan"
  ]
}' |
apify call lulzasaur/boardgamegeek-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,lulzasaur/boardgamegeek-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/UdouGRHfOQeI5WeuC/builds/7u75KW8Qot7q5i3ut/openapi.json