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IGDB

igdb.com

Free plan WebAPI
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Spec score 8.6 #2 of 14 in Game Databases

What it is

IGDB is a video game information database for searching games, companies, and characters. Search results can be sorted by relevance, title, release date, or rating, and the database accepts community contributions. Developers can query game data and related entities through its API, choosing fields, filters, sorting, and other request options. Non-commercial API use is free under the Twitch Developer Service Agreement. Commercial use requires a partnership, and products integrating the API are expected to show visible user-facing attribution. Access requires a Twitch account with two-factor authentication, an application Client ID and Client Secret, and OAuth2 application credentials. The API allows 4 requests per second, up to 8 open requests at once, and at most 500 results per request. Documentation provides daily-updated CSV data dumps and lists wrappers for several languages. Direct browser requests are not supported because the API has no CORS headers; a backend proxy is recommended. IGDB's API is available for free for non-commercial use, while commercial use requires a partnership.

Spec sheet

What it does
IGDB is an online video-game database and community for discovering, rating, listing and reviewing games.Read 14 Oct 2026 · igdb.com
Purpose
IGDB describes its goal as gathering relevant information about games in one place, with community contributions to its database.Read 29 Sep 2026 · igdb.com
Integrations
The documentation lists Apicalypse wrappers for NodeJS, JVM/Kotlin/Java, Swift, and Python, plus third-party wrappers for PHP/Laravel, Go, Ruby, C#/.NET, and Deno.Read 29 Sep 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Support
IGDB directs API questions to its Discord community and bug reports to Discord or UserVoice.Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
License
The documentation licenses its code examples and snippets under the Twitch Developer Services Agreement as Program Materials.Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
API access
The IGDB API is free for non-commercial use under the Twitch Developer Service Agreement.Read 29 Sep 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
API authentication
API access uses Twitch application credentials, OAuth2 client-credentials authentication, a Client ID and bearer access token.Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
API endpoint
The v4 API uses POST requests to endpoint-specific paths under api.igdb.com/v4.Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
API limits
The API rate limit is 4 requests per second, allows up to 8 open requests at once, and returns at most 500 results per request.Read 29 Sep 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Authentication
API access requires a Twitch account with two-factor authentication and an application Client ID and Client Secret, and requests use OAuth2 application credentials.Read 29 Sep 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Browser limitation
The API does not allow direct browser requests because it does not provide CORS headers; the documentation recommends using a backend proxy.Read 29 Sep 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Caching and storage
IGDB permits local caching and says it prefers developers to store and serve retrieved data themselves.Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Commercial attribution
Commercial API partnerships require visible, static user-facing attribution to IGDB.com.Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Commercial use
Commercial API use is allowed through a partnership, and IGDB asks for visible user-facing attribution in products that integrate the API.Read 29 Sep 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Community editing
Registered users can rate, list, review, edit and create game pages, with edits validated by IGDB employees according to Wikipedia's description.Read 14 Oct 2026 · en.wikipedia.org
Company founded
LinkedIn lists IGDB.com as founded in 2015.Read 14 Oct 2026 · se.linkedin.com
Company founder
Crunchbase identifies Christian Frithiof as IGDB.com's founder.Read 14 Oct 2026 · crunchbase.com
Company headquarters
LinkedIn lists Gothenburg, Sweden as IGDB.com's headquarters.Read 14 Oct 2026 · se.linkedin.com
Company ownership
Crunchbase lists IGDB.com as an active for-profit sub-organization of Twitch and says it was acquired by Twitch.Read 14 Oct 2026 · crunchbase.com
Company size
LinkedIn lists IGDB.com as a privately held company with 2–10 employees and shows seven employees on the company page.Read 14 Oct 2026 · se.linkedin.com
CORS restriction
Browser and mobile JavaScript clients cannot call the API directly because IGDB does not provide CORS headers; a backend proxy is recommended.Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Data dumps
The documentation says all endpoints are available as CSV data dumps that are updated daily.Read 29 Sep 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Data fields
The API provides endpoints for game data and related entities, and queries specify fields, filters, sorting, and other options in the request body.Read 29 Sep 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Database coverage
Wikipedia reported that by March 2023 IGDB contained about 428,000 games, 44,300 companies, 217,000 people and more than 1.1 million reviews, screenshots and videos.Read 14 Oct 2026 · en.wikipedia.org
Funding information
Crunchbase shows two venture rounds and lists Goodbye Kansas Game Invest among IGDB investors, but funding amounts are obscured on the public page.Read 14 Oct 2026 · crunchbase.com
Game discovery
The site provides search for video games, companies, and characters, with sorting by relevance, title, release date, or rating.Read 29 Sep 2026 · igdb.com
Game metadata
The API exposes structured game data including release dates, platforms, genres, companies, ratings, screenshots, artworks, videos and websites.Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Limit: collection tracking
A Reddit discussion characterized IGDB as database-first and relatively sparse for collection tracking compared with dedicated backlog services.Read 14 Oct 2026 · reddit.com
Limit: governance
Gitnux said IGDB offers limited administrative governance for multi-user curation.Read 14 Oct 2026 · gitnux.org
Limit: metadata completeness
Gitnux reported that some fields vary in completeness across older or niche games.Read 14 Oct 2026 · gitnux.org
Limit: query complexity
Gitnux cautioned that consuming systems still need query and normalization logic, and that rate limits and pagination require careful handling.Read 14 Oct 2026 · gitnux.org
Limit: rating samples
A Reddit reviewer complained that some IGDB scores are based on very small numbers of ratings and opaque critic samples, making scores misleading.Read 14 Oct 2026 · reddit.com
MCP availability
The IGDB MCP Server is described as being in beta testing, with features, tools, and authentication flows subject to change without notice.Read 29 Sep 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
MCP integrations
The MCP server documentation names Kiro, Claude Desktop, Cursor and Windsurf as compatible clients and provides a Python igdb-mcp-client setup.Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
MCP server
The beta MCP server provides entity discovery, schema inspection, fuzzy search, detail retrieval, filtered queries, aggregation and semantic game search.Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Multi-query
The multiquery endpoint can combine multiple endpoint queries in one request, with a maximum of 10 queries.Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Popularity data
IGDB documents PopScore primitives and a Popularity API for tracking game-market trends.Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Praise: API value
Gitnux rated IGDB 8.3/10 overall and 8.5/10 for value, praising direct structured API access and stable IGDB ID mapping.Read 14 Oct 2026 · gitnux.org
Praise: relationships
Gitnux praised IGDB's rich entity relationships for platform and franchise browsing and its extensible query patterns.Read 14 Oct 2026 · gitnux.org
Protocol Buffers
IGDB supplies a proto3 mapping file so developers can generate language-specific objects, wrappers and tooling, and can request protobuf responses with a .pb suffix.Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Proxy integration
IGDB documents an AWS API Gateway, Secrets Manager and Lambda proxy deployment that rotates tokens and can add caching, keys and logging.Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Proxy option
IGDB provides a guide to deploy an API proxy in the user's AWS account, with token rotation handled by the stack; AWS charges may apply.Read 29 Sep 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Query language
APICalypse provides fields, filters, sorting, search, pagination, exclusion and expansion syntax for API queries.Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
SDK wrappers
Officially documented Apicalypse wrappers cover Node.js, JVM/Kotlin/Java, Swift and Python, while third-party wrappers cover PHP/Laravel, Go, Ruby, C#/.NET and Deno.Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Security and content
IGDB says its content policy may remove or restrict material that fails submission criteria or violates Twitch Community Guidelines.Read 29 Sep 2026 · igdb.com
Security requirement
Creating API credentials requires a Twitch account with two-factor authentication enabled.Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Token lifetime
API access tokens are active for 60 days, and each application can have up to 25 active tokens before older ones are inactivated.Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
US expansion
An IGDB LinkedIn post announced an American division in Columbus, Ohio and named Tyler Trollinger as Director of Business Development.Read 14 Oct 2026 · linkedin.com
Webhooks
The API supports webhooks for entity events and expects a 200 response within 15 seconds; five failures deactivate a webhook.Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com

Plans and prices

IGDB API Free Free for non-commercial and commercial projects · Commercial integrations require partnership and visible IGDB attribution · 4 requests/second · 8 concurrent open requests · 500 results/request Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
IGDB API (commercial partnership) Free Free · Commercial use requires a partnership · User-facing attribution expected Read 29 Sep 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
IGDB API (non-commercial) Free Free for non-commercial usage · 4 requests per second · Up to 8 open requests Read 29 Sep 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com
Commercial partnership Priced on request For monetized products · User-facing IGDB attribution requested Read 14 Oct 2026 · api-docs.igdb.com

Every IGDB plan and price →

Strong points and limits

Strong points

  • Searches games, companies, and characters.
  • Free API use for non-commercial purposes.
  • Provides daily-updated CSV dumps.
  • Offers wrappers for multiple programming languages.

Limits

  • Commercial API use requires a partnership.
  • Direct browser requests are not supported.
  • API access requires Twitch two-factor authentication.
  • Requests are limited to 4 per second.

Who it suits

IGDB suits people looking up game, company, and character information, as well as developers building game-data integrations. API users need to work with its authentication requirements and request limits.

Verdict

IGDB pairs public game discovery with an API and regularly updated CSV dumps. Developers should account for authentication, rate limits, and the partnership requirement for commercial use.

Where Specifiction places it

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