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mallardduck/metacritic-api
==========================

2.1.0(3y ago)122Apache-2.0PHP

Since Oct 18Pushed 3y agoCompare

[ Source](https://github.com/mallardduck/php-metacritic-api)[ Packagist](https://packagist.org/packages/mallardduck/metacritic-api)[ RSS](/packages/mallardduck-metacritic-api/feed)WikiDiscussions main Synced yesterday

READMEChangelogDependencies (3)Versions (6)Used By (0)

Metacritic API
==============

[](#metacritic-api)

Using this Metacritic API, you are able to search games on [metacritic.com](http://www.metacritic.com).

It will give you back the metacritic score, users score, genres, rating, developers and much more (see below for an example). The output is in [JSON format](http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.json-decode.php), so it is easy to parse in both PHP or other languages.

By default it uses the URL prefix: "". If you want to search for Playstation 3 games, just change it to: "". See [metacritic.php](src/metacritic.php) file.

Example
-------

[](#example)

Searching on the PC game called "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim", will give the following JSON output:

```
{
  "name": "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim",
  "metascritic_score": 94,
  "users_score": 8.2,
  "rating": "M",
  "genres": [
    "Role-Playing",
    "First-Person",
    "First-Person",
    "Western-Style"
  ],
  "developers": [
    "Bethesda Game Studios"
  ],
  "publishers": "Bethesda Softworks",
  "release_date": "Nov 10, 2011",
  "also_on": [
    "PlayStation 3",
    "Xbox 360"
  ],
  "also_on_url": [
    "/game/playstation-3/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim",
    "/game/xbox-360/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim"
  ],
  "thumbnail_url": "http://static.metacritic.com/images/products/games/7/5988ee04196a686e107b46174f94a3ae-98.jpg",
  "cheat_url": "http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/pc/code/615805.html"
}
```

On error
--------

[](#on-error)

When for some reason the page couldn't be loaded / found or parsed, you will get the following JSON response:

```
{"error":"Page could not be loaded!"}
```

Or when metacritic.php is directly called, without input you will get: `{"error": "Game title is empty"}`

Code example
------------

[](#code-example)

Please, see [example.php](example.php)

Another way to access the API is to directly call [metacritic.php](src/metacritic.php) via the website URL:

```
metacritic.php?game_title=Halo%202
```

Be-aware that the game title needs to be [URL encoded](https://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_urlencode.asp) to work.

Have fun!

CI/CD
-----

[](#cicd)

Code quality is checked in GitLab CI/CD, to avoid regression.

Currently in the pipeline:

- [Psalm](https://psalm.dev/) - Static analysis tool for PHP
- [Phpcs](https://github.com/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer) - PHP coding style standard (`phpcbf` command for auto-fix)
- [Phpmetrics](https://phpmetrics.github.io/PhpMetrics/) - PHP metrics for complexity, object oriented, maintainability and more.
    - [Latest Metrics Report](https://gitlab.melroy.org/melroy/metacritic_api/-/jobs/artifacts/master/file/report/index.html?job=phpmetrics)

###  Health Score

25

—

LowBetter than 35% of packages

Maintenance20

Infrequent updates — may be unmaintained

Popularity8

Limited adoption so far

Community9

Small or concentrated contributor base

Maturity54

Maturing project, gaining track record

 Bus Factor1

Top contributor holds 65.2% of commits — single point of failure

How is this calculated?**Maintenance (25%)** — Last commit recency, latest release date, and issue-to-star ratio. Uses a 2-year decay window.

**Popularity (30%)** — Total and monthly downloads, GitHub stars, and forks. Logarithmic scaling prevents top-heavy scores.

**Community (15%)** — Contributors, dependents, forks, watchers, and maintainers. Measures real ecosystem engagement.

**Maturity (30%)** — Project age, version count, PHP version support, and release stability.

###  Release Activity

Cadence

Every ~136 days

Total

4

Last Release

1311d ago

Major Versions

v1.1 → 2.0.02022-11-30

### Community

Maintainers

![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/801be8ba9bfb0cb2629f51f9753a0392683c2680fe3e941a188495840d920333?d=identicon)[MallardDuck](/maintainers/MallardDuck)

---

Top Contributors

[![melroy89](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/628926?v=4)](https://github.com/melroy89 "melroy89 (15 commits)")[![mallardduck](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/619938?v=4)](https://github.com/mallardduck "mallardduck (7 commits)")[![mermop](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/1615322?v=4)](https://github.com/mermop "mermop (1 commits)")

###  Code Quality

Static AnalysisPsalm

Type Coverage Yes

### Embed Badge

![Health badge](/badges/mallardduck-metacritic-api/health.svg)

```
[![Health](https://phpackages.com/badges/mallardduck-metacritic-api/health.svg)](https://phpackages.com/packages/mallardduck-metacritic-api)
```

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