Upcoming Changes to the Search Game and Get Top Games v5 Endpoints

As of February 12, 2020, we are making several changes to the Search Games and Get Top Games v5 endpoints:

  1. The Search Games endpoint will no longer return results sorted by the order of the popularity field. Results will instead be sorted alphabetically.
  2. The optional live query string parameter will be removed from the Search Games endpoint
  3. The popularity response field will be removed from both the Get Top Games and Search Games endpoints

All third party application developers who are actively using this functionality are encouraged to update their applications to remove support or dependencies on these features by February 12 to ensure that they continue to function as expected.

As we continue to make improvements to our onsite search and browsing experiences as previously announced, we are rethinking how we handle concepts like popularity. While we have never provided details on the purpose of this particular response field, how it could be used, and the impact it had on the order of results from the Search Games endpoint, it is no longer representative of its original intended purpose. Maintaining this field and the functionality of the live query string parameter introduces internal dependencies that we are removing in order to continue improving our services and codebases.

We currently do not have plans to introduce new features to replicate this functionality.

Please let us know if you have any questions or feedback in the comments below.

To follow up on this, we have begun making changes, and the optional live query string parameter should no longer function. We will begin to make the remaining changes tomorrow. Thank you!

One final update: this work is now completed. The popularity field has now been removed from the Get Top Games and Search Games endpoints, and Search Games results are now sorted alphabetically.