Why can't I get national and ZCTA-level estimates from SF1 using R package acs?

The following works:

acs::acs.fetch(dataset = "acs",
               endyear = 2015, 
               span = 5,
               geography = acs::geo.make(zip = "*"),
               variable = "B01001_001")

So does this:

acs::acs.fetch(dataset = "sf1",
               endyear = 2010,
               span = 0,
               geography = acs::geo.make(state = "*"),
               variable = "PCT0120001")

Please explain to me why the follow do not work, because it's not because there aren't zip-code level estimates available from Census API. Do I need to specify the geography differently to get national- and ZCTA-level estimates from sf1 and than I would from acs5 in the Census API?

acs::acs.fetch(dataset = "sf1",
               endyear = 2010,
               span = 0,
               geography = acs::geo.make(zip = "*"),
               variable = "PCT0120001")
# Error in file(file, "rt") : cannot open the connection
# In addition: Warning message:
# No data found at:
#   http://api.census.gov/data/2010/sf1?key=2dd03c4048ca2edb8463d8c0bbdc09c5eb3b4013&get=PCT0120001,NAME&for=zip+code+tabulation+area:*

acs::acs.fetch(dataset = "sf1",
               endyear = 2010,
               span = 0,
               geography = acs::geo.make(us = "*"),
               variable = "PCT0120001")
# Error in file(file, "rt") : cannot open the connection
# In addition: Warning message:
# No data found at:
#   http://api.census.gov/data/2010/sf1?key=2dd03c4048ca2edb8463d8c0bbdc09c5eb3b4013&get=PCT0120001,NAME&for=us:*

Solution

You can use totalcensus package to download the summary files and extract the data in each zip codes. The data is downloaded to your own computer so the access to the data is not limited by census API.

library(totalcensus)
aaa <- read_decennial(
    year = 2010,
    states = "US",
    table_contents = "PCT0120001",
    geo_headers = "ZCTA5",
    summary_level = "860"
)


print(aaa)

#               lon      lat ZCTA5 state population PCT0120001 GEOCOMP SUMLEV
#     1:  -66.74996 18.18056 00601    NA      18570      18570     all    860
#     2:  -67.17613 18.36227 00602    NA      41520      41520     all    860
#     3:  -67.11989 18.45518 00603    NA      54689      54689     all    860
#     4:  -66.93291 18.15835 00606    NA       6615       6615     all    860
#     5:  -67.12587 18.29096 00610    NA      29016      29016     all    860
# ---                                                                     
# 33116: -130.04103 56.00232 99923    NA         87         87     all    860
# 33117: -132.94593 55.55020 99925    NA        819        819     all    860
# 33118: -131.47074 55.13807 99926    NA       1460       1460     all    860
# 33119: -133.45792 56.23906 99927    NA         94         94     all    860
# 33120: -131.60683 56.41383 99929    NA       2338       2338     all    860