SteamDB sold to Nexus Mods parent after 13 years as an indie project
SteamDB, the go-to independent database for Steam prices, player counts, and game histories, has been acquired by Chosen — the company that owns Nexus Mods. The deal closed on September 2, 2026; financial terms were not disclosed. For now, nothing changes for users: the site keeps its name, URL, and free features.
Burnout and AI scraping drove the sale
xPaw launched SteamDB in 2013 as a hobby project alongside co-founder Marlamin. When Marlamin stepped back in 2017, xPaw became the sole operator — juggling infrastructure, upkeep, and a growing user base on his own. By his account, the strain became unsustainable. He began looking for a buyer in January 2026, citing two forces: post-COVID exhaustion and a surge in AI bots scraping the site. "After COVID and with the rise of AI, the internet we once loved is gone," xPaw wrote in his statement, per GamingOnLinux.
Earlier attempts to sell fell flat — nobody was interested. Chosen, led by Victor Folmann since June 2025, stepped in and struck a deal.
What Nexus Mods gets out of it
Nexus Mods isn't just acquiring a popular fan tool. SteamDB holds years of historical Steam data — builds, depots, manifests — that Chosen plans to use for mod compatibility features. Tying that dataset to the world's largest mod-hosting platform gives Nexus Mods a real edge over competing mod platforms.
xPaw framed the fit as a values match: "Nexus Mods has served the gaming community for over twenty years — and, like SteamDB, grew from a personal project into a service used by tens of millions. It was important for me to find a team that understands what it means to be responsible for something the community can't do without."
The community isn't fully convinced
Reaction online has been mixed, reports Dot Esports. Some users are relieved — a funded SteamDB is better than one person burning out and shutting the whole thing down. Others point to Nexus Mods' own history of premium-tier creep, including download limits that surfaced after Chosen took over in mid-2025, and worry that price data or historical records could eventually move behind a paywall.
Chosen's only firm commitment so far: existing free features stay free. Whether that holds as Nexus Mods integrates SteamDB data into its paid tiers remains the open question.
