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Arena54

Arena54 is the directory of games made across Africa’s 54 countries and the studios and people who make them. The API gives you that directory, and the rankings people vote on, as JSON. You keep your product; Arena54 keeps the listings current.

The API is read-only today. Test (a54_test_) and live (a54_live_) keys call the same addresses and get the same shapes.

What you get

  • Games: title, pitch, genres, platforms, stage, release year, cover, and for one game its description, screenshots, links and credits.
  • Creators: studios and people, with roles, city, country, a verified mark and the games they made.
  • Places: countries and cities, with how many creators and games each has.
  • Events: jams, meetups, tournaments, showcases and conferences.
  • Rankings: this week, this month and all time, for games and for creators, from head-to-head votes.
  • Developer tools: keys you create, rotate and revoke in the dashboard, a console, and a sample page to copy from.

The life of a call

Every request goes through the same five checks, in this order. The first one that fails answers.

  1. 01

    Switch

    Is the API on? If not, 503.

  2. 02

    Key

    Is there a valid key? If not, 401.

  3. 03

    Limit

    Is the key within its calls a minute? If not, 429.

  4. 04

    Address

    Does the endpoint or item exist? If not, 404.

  5. 05

    Answer

    200, in the one envelope, with a request id.

How you integrate

Text
Your product (store, newsletter, hub site, research script)
        │
        │  Authorization: Bearer a54_test_… or a54_live_…
        ▼
   Arena54 API   developers.arena54.com/api/v1
        │
        ├── lists      /games  /creators  /events  /countries  /cities
        ├── items      /games/{slug}  /creators/{handle}  /countries/{code}
        └── rankings   /rankings/{games|creators}/{week|month|all}

Call the API from your servers only. Never put a key in a web page, a mobile app or a frontend bundle. Cache what you read: listings change a few times a day, not a few times a second.

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