TheGamesDB
An open, online database for video game fans providing game information, artwork, and metadata via API.
Real signal across most facets with visible, nameable gaps — the contract exists but is thin, or the portal is good while governance and commercial terms are absent.
API Evangelist profiles TheGamesDB the way a machine reads it — 51 machine-readable artifacts across 5 APIs, pulled from the provider's own public surface and indexed so a developer, an analyst, or an AI agent can evaluate it against every other provider on the network.
Every provider in the network is reduced to the same set of machine-readable artifacts — OpenAPI contracts, event specifications, GraphQL schemas, runnable collections, pricing and rate-limit signals, security posture, OAuth scopes, and the agent surfaces (MCP servers and skills) that let software drive the API on its own. We profile them because the interface is the part of a company you can actually inspect: it is a truer signal of what a provider does than any marketing page. From those artifacts we compute the Kin Score — TheGamesDB scores 53.2/100 (developing), with a separate agent-readiness read of 48/100 (agent ready). The full breakdown is below, followed by every artifact we hold — each card links through to its machine-readable definition on apis.io.
Kin Score
This is the API Evangelist rating — a single, repeatable read computed from the artifacts on this page. Green fill is points earned; the red track is points possible, so every bar shows earned-versus-possible at a glance.
How we profile TheGamesDB
Each block below is one kind of artifact we hold for TheGamesDB. For each we say what it is and why it earns a place in the profile, then list every one we've indexed — capped at two rows, scroll within the panel for the rest.
APIs 5
Each API is captured as its own OpenAPI definition — every operation, parameter, and response. This is the single most useful machine-readable description of what an API does, and it's what lets us score, lint, mock, and generate against it without asking the provider for anything.
Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.
TheGamesDB Developers API
The Developers API from TheGamesDB — 1 operation(s) for developers.
TheGamesDB Games API
The Games API from TheGamesDB — 6 operation(s) for games.
TheGamesDB Genres API
The Genres API from TheGamesDB — 1 operation(s) for genres.
TheGamesDB Platforms API
The Platforms API from TheGamesDB — 4 operation(s) for platforms.
TheGamesDB Publishers API
The Publishers API from TheGamesDB — 1 operation(s) for publishers.
Open Collections 1
Open, tool-agnostic collections carry the same runnable value as Postman without locking you to one client — the portable, forkable form of the same exercise.
Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).
TheGamesDB API
OPEN COLLECTIONPricing Plans 1
Pricing is part of the interface. Machine-readable plans tell you what a tier costs and includes before you commit — one of the six things the Kin Score reads for commercial clarity.
Published pricing tiers and plan structures.
Rate Limits 1
Rate limits are the difference between a demo that works and a production integration that doesn't fall over. Publishing them is an operational-transparency signal — and a hard requirement for any agent that plans its own throughput.
Documented rate limits and quota policies.
Thegamesdb Rate Limits
RATE LIMITSFinOps 1
Cost, billing, and metering signals let a buyer model the financial operations of an API before it's live. We profile them for the same reason we profile pricing: the money is part of the contract.
Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.
Thegamesdb Finops
FINOPSFeatures 7
The notable capabilities this provider advertises, captured as structured features so they can be searched and compared instead of read one landing page at a time.
Notable capabilities this provider offers.
Game Search
Search games by name with optional platform filtering
Game Details
Retrieve complete game metadata by ID including overview, ratings, and system requirements
Platform Catalog
Full catalog of all gaming platforms with hardware specifications and images
Game Artwork
Boxart, screenshots, fanart, banners, and clearlogos for games and platforms
Game Updates
Retrieve games updated since a given timestamp for database synchronization
Reference Data
Complete lists of genres, developers, and publishers
Batch Requests
Request multiple game or platform IDs in a single API call
Scroll within the panel for all 7 ·
Semantic Vocabularies 1
JSON-LD contexts give the data shared meaning across APIs. We profile them because semantics are what let a machine reconcile 'customer' here with 'customer' somewhere else.
JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.
Thegamesdb Context
JSON-LDSpectral Rules 2
Governance rulesets we run against this provider's specs — the automated checks behind parts of the score. Profiling them makes the quality bar explicit and re-runnable, not a matter of opinion.
TheGamesDB API Rules
SPECTRALTheGamesDB API Rules
SPECTRALJSON Schema 8
Standalone JSON Schema definitions describe the data models behind the API. We profile them so the shapes are validatable on their own — useful long after a single request is forgotten.
Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.
GameImage
JSON SCHEMAGame
JSON SCHEMAGamesByGameIDResponse
JSON SCHEMAGamesImagesResponse
JSON SCHEMAGamesUpdatesResponse
JSON SCHEMAGenresDevelopersPublishersResponse
JSON SCHEMAPlatform
JSON SCHEMAPlatformsResponse
JSON SCHEMAScroll within the panel for all 8 ·
JSON Structure 8
JSON Structure captures the data shapes in a form built for tooling — a complement to JSON Schema that keeps the model machine-legible.
JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.
Thegamesdb Game Image Structure
JSON STRUCTUREThegamesdb Game Structure
JSON STRUCTUREThegamesdb Games By Game Id Response Structure
JSON STRUCTUREThegamesdb Games Images Response Structure
JSON STRUCTUREThegamesdb Games Updates Response Structure
JSON STRUCTUREThegamesdb Platform Structure
JSON STRUCTUREThegamesdb Platforms Response Structure
JSON STRUCTUREScroll within the panel for all 8 ·
Examples 8
Real request and response payloads are what turn a spec from abstract into obvious — and they're one of the twelve things an agent needs to call an API correctly on the first try.
Example request and response payloads for these APIs.
Thegamesdb Game Example
EXAMPLEThegamesdb Platform Example
EXAMPLEScroll within the panel for all 8 ·
Security Posture 1
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals — the evidence that a provider takes security seriously enough to document it. We profile it because you can't govern what you can't see.
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.
Agentic Access 1
An x-agentic-access contract marks which operations are safe for an agent to run on its own and which need a human in the loop. It is the difference between an API an agent can use and one it can use safely.
Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.
Use Cases 4
What developers actually build with this provider — captured so the catalogue answers 'what is this for', not just 'what does this expose'.
What developers build with this provider.
Gaming Applications
Build game databases, libraries, and collection managers
Media Centers
Power game scrapers for Emulation Station, Kodi, and similar media centers
Game Collections
Manage personal or commercial video game collection databases
AI Game Assistant
Power AI agents that answer questions about video games
Integrations 2
Pre-built integrations with other platforms tell you where this provider already fits in a stack.
Pre-built integrations with other platforms and tools.
EmulationStation
Popular retro gaming frontend using TheGamesDB for scraping
Skraper
Game scraper tools using the API for artwork and metadata
Resources
Every other property we hold for TheGamesDB — documentation, portals, status pages, policies, and corporate surface — grouped by the job it does, following the integrator's arc from getting started to running in production.
Get Started 1
Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call
Documentation 1
Reference material describing how the API behaves
Agent Surfaces 1
MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs
Design & Contract 2
Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events
Build 1
SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with
Access & Security 2
Authentication, authorization, and security posture
Operate 1
Status, limits, changes, and where to get help
Company 1
The organization behind the API
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