SteamDB Acquired by Nexus Mods After 13 Years as an Independent Steam Database

SteamDB, the third-party database that millions of PC gamers, developers, and publishers rely on for player counts, price history, and backend Steam data, has a new owner. On September 2, 2026, Nexus Mods parent company Chosen announced it has acquired SteamDB after founder Pavel “xPaw” Djundik spent 13 years running the service largely on his own.

SteamDB and Nexus Mods confirmed the acquisition together in matching blog posts.

Why xPaw Decided to Sell SteamDB

SteamDB started in 2013 as a passion project between xPaw and co-founder Marlamin, built to surface Steam data that Valve doesn’t expose through the regular store. Marlamin stepped back years ago, leaving xPaw to single-handedly maintain a service that grew into something resembling a full-time job. In his own announcement on the SteamDB blog, xPaw explained that burnout, combined with the broader strain of running an independent site in the AI era, made the workload unsustainable.

He began searching for a partner back in January and ultimately chose Chosen, the company behind Nexus Mods. xPaw framed the decision around preserving everything that already makes SteamDB work, while finally getting the staffing and long-term stability he could no longer provide by himself.

What Changes (and What Doesn’t) for SteamDB Users

Both companies were quick to stress that SteamDB isn’t disappearing into Nexus Mods. According to the official FAQ published alongside the announcement:

• SteamDB keeps its own name, brand, URL, and community
• No Nexus Mods account is required to use the site
• Everything currently free will remain free, with no existing features moved behind a paywall
• The SteamDB browser extension will continue to be maintained and developed
• xPaw will stay on for several months to help with the transition

Nexus Mods CEO Victor Folmann struck a similar tone in a statement accompanying the announcement, describing the company’s role as protecting what already makes SteamDB work rather than reshaping it, while building the team and infrastructure needed to keep it running for years to come.

What This Means for Modding

The acquisition isn’t purely charitable. SteamDB’s greatest asset for Nexus Mods is its enormous historical archive of Steam builds, depots, manifests, and update logs. Nexus Mods wants to use that data to solve one of modding’s most persistent headaches: game updates silently breaking mods that were built for an older version. Down the line, the plan is to let mod managers and Collections cross-reference a game’s exact build against mod compatibility data, warning players before an update wrecks their setup.

Nexus Mods was careful to note this won’t turn SteamDB into a modding site. Anyone who only uses it for player counts, pricing history, or update tracking will still find the same SteamDB they always have, just with more people keeping the lights on.

Community reaction has been mixed. While many longtime users welcomed the promise of better infrastructure and a properly staffed team, others voiced concerns familiar to anyone who has watched an independent tool get bought out, worrying about eventual paywalls or reduced transparency around player counts. Nexus Mods has pointed skeptics toward its published FAQ, which directly addresses questions about monetization, data privacy, and whether SteamDB’s public statistics could ever be hidden at a publisher’s request.

For now, nothing changes day-to-day: SteamDB keeps running as normal while the handover takes place behind the scenes over the coming months.

Keep the adventure going! Check out more Gaming News on Gamersuniverse.

Picture Source: Nexus Mods / SteamDB