SteamDB's Founder Sold Up After 13 Years Alone With It

Business

03 September 2026 17:03

One guy, one database.

Pavel "xPaw" Djundik started SteamDB in 2013 as a hobby project. Thirteen years later he was still the sole operator, funded by community donations, tracking every price change, player count, build, depot, manifest and file update across Steam.

He announced on 2 September that Nexus Mods has bought his hobby. Terms undisclosed, and no announcement on whether cash changed hands or whether Djundik keeps a stake.

His stated reason was burnout, a hobby that became a full-time job as Steam expanded. But the line worth sitting with is the other one, about AI scraping having taken the internet he loved and his passion with it.

Apparently he started looking for a partner in January. "What mattered most to me was finding a team that understands what it means to be responsible for something the community depends on."

What isn't changing

Same name, same URL, same brand
Everything free stays free
No Nexus Mods account required
The browser extension continues
xPaw stays on through the transition

No adverts planned. An API for developers and publishers is being considered, with no date currently.

Why Nexus wanted it

For the archives, SteamDB holds records of which files belong to which versions of Steam games, some going back over a decade.

For a modding platform, that's insanely useful, knowing what version people are running, what configurations are common, which games are trending, and what a mod needs to be compatible with. Mod compatibility tools built on that data are made to fit games.

The reception

A bit skeptical, and the reason is Nexus Mods itself was sold in 2025 when founder Robin "Dark0ne" Scott sold to Chosen and stepped back.

One reaction doing the rounds: "They will delete statistics that investors don't like, just like they do with mods."

Chosen founder Alex Darby stated "I founded Chosen to become the kind of long-term owner I wish had existed when I sold my own company, someone who genuinely cares about what has been built, protects what makes it special, and listens to the community that made it possible. Our job isn't to change what makes SteamDB special. It's to give it the resources, team and long-term stability it deserves."

Nexus Mods now has 73.3 million registered users. SteamDB draws around 140 million views.

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Tags: Steam Nexus

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