End of an Era for Steam’s Independent Tracker
SteamDB, one of the most widely used third-party databases for tracking Steam game data, has been acquired. The site is now owned by Chosen , the parent company behind the popular modding platform Nexus Mods. The deal was officially confirmed by both parties on September 2, 2026.
After 13 years of independent operation, SteamDB will remain a separate website with its existing name, brand, and community. Users will not need a Nexus Mods account to access the site, and the browser extension will continue to be maintained.
Founder Burnout and the Search for a Successor
SteamDB was founded in 2013 by Pavel “xPaw” Djundik and Marlamin as a hobby project. Over time, as Steam’s catalog grew, maintaining the database became the equivalent of a full-time job. Marlamin stepped back years ago, leaving the growing workload to xPaw alone.
In a candid statement, xPaw explained the toll it took: “After COVID and with the rise of AI, the internet we once loved is gone, and with it my passion. I have started experiencing burnout with the project”. He tried to find a successor a few years ago but couldn’t find a team he trusted.
In January 2026, he began searching again. “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself by either just letting the site run as-is and letting it wither, or completely shut it down,” he wrote. Nexus Mods ultimately proved to be the right partner, with xPaw citing their 20-year track record of community stewardship.
What SteamDB Does
SteamDB provides considerably more information than Valve exposes through the regular Steam store interface. It tracks application and package changes, player counts, prices, releases, builds, depots, manifests, files, and update histories. This makes it a common resource for game tracking and data mining, including finding backend changes before developers publicly explain what has been updated.
Features like Steam Charts, which tracks active player counts of newly released titles, have become so influential that many modern AAA releases are judged by how well they perform on the platform.
Why Nexus Mods Wanted SteamDB
Nexus Mods was primarily interested in SteamDB’s historical game version data. The database contains records showing which files belong to different versions of Steam games, with some histories going back more than a decade.
This information could eventually help Nexus Mods’ modding tools identify which version of a game a user is running, determine whether a game update might break installed mods, and enable version pinning. As Nexus Mods explained: “Mods are often built around a particular version of a game, so when there’s an update for it, your game that was perfectly modded and working the day before now just…doesn’t”.
What Changes for Users?
For existing SteamDB users, there are no immediate changes planned. Everything currently available for free will remain free, and there will be no ads on the website. xPaw will continue working with the new team during the transition, while SteamDB receives additional staff, infrastructure, and funding.
However, the site will eventually be commercialized. According to a FAQ, this will not involve ads but may include partnerships, integrations, and affiliate links when users buy a game after visiting SteamDB. Monetization may also come in the form of new premium features built on top of the existing free service.
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Community Skepticism
The acquisition has sparked concerns among players. Some worry that features like the Price History tracker or Steam Charts could eventually be placed behind a paywall. Others fear that Nexus Mods might delete statistics that investors or publishers don’t like.
xPaw has pushed back against these concerns: “Everything that’s free on SteamDB today stays free. If we build genuinely new things someday, we may make decisions about those then, but nothing you know and use today is getting taken away and sold back to you”.
Nexus Mods CEO Victor Folmann echoed this, saying the company isn’t going to change what makes SteamDB “special” and will instead offer the resources, team, and long-term stability it deserves. “We’re incredibly proud, and overwhelmingly grateful, that he chose us to take SteamDB forward, and now we need to show that trust was well placed,” Folmann said.