# PC Gamer
**PC Gamer** is a monthly magazine and website covering PC gaming, published by [Future plc](https://www.edgepedia.org/future-plc) since its first issue in November 1993. The magazine launched in the United Kingdom with the promise "This is the future of PC games!", followed by a US edition in 1994, and it now operates alongside pcgamer.com, which has published around-the-clock news, features, esports coverage, hardware testing, and game reviews since 2010.[1](https://www.pcgamer.com/celebrating-30-years-of-pc-gamer/) • [2](https://www.pcgamer.com/our-magazine-is-now-25-years-old-get-it-digitally-when-you-join-the-pc-gamer-club/) • [3](https://www.pcgamer.com/about-pc-gamer/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| First issue | November 1993, UK edition, published by Future Publishing[1](https://www.pcgamer.com/celebrating-30-years-of-pc-gamer/) |
| US edition | Launched in 1994, a year after the UK original[2](https://www.pcgamer.com/our-magazine-is-now-25-years-old-get-it-digitally-when-you-join-the-pc-gamer-club/) |
| Publisher | Future plc, with offices in New York, Bath, and Sydney[3](https://www.pcgamer.com/about-pc-gamer/) |
| Website | pcgamer.com, launched in 2010[4](https://www.pcgamer.com/welcome-to-the-new-home-of-pc-gamer/) |
| Frequency | 13 issues per year; UK annual subscription priced at $141.99 print or $58.99 digital[5](https://www.pcgamer.com/games/pc-gamer-magazines-new-issue-is-on-sale-now-dinolords/) |
| Events | Annual PC Gaming Show, including a Summer Game Fest showcase each June[3](https://www.pcgamer.com/about-pc-gamer/) • [6](https://skwn.phtenga.com/?_=%2Fabout-pc-gamer%2F%23y8nDPbOzYvLPNyC0tXQ3J87YxWOj5iA%3D) |
| Reviews | Scored game reviews published since 1993; scores are final once published[7](https://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gamer-reviews-policy/) |
## History
The magazine was founded by Future Publishing, the specialist-media company established by Chris Anderson; Future's own corporate history lists 1993 as the year both PC Gamer and the [Edge](https://www.edgepedia.org/edge-magazine) gaming magazine launched.[8](https://futureplc.com/about/?jcode=UWP) The first issue appeared in November 1993, and the first US edition followed a year later under a licensing arrangement that produced broadly independent editorial teams on each side of the Atlantic.[1](https://www.pcgamer.com/celebrating-30-years-of-pc-gamer/) • [9](https://www.bosnan.net/magazines/pc-gamer) The publication grew from a small staff in Bath into an international team working from the US, UK, and Australia.[1](https://www.pcgamer.com/celebrating-30-years-of-pc-gamer/)
The website began in 2010, and the brand marked its 30th anniversary in November 2023 with a week of stories on the history of PC gaming.[4](https://www.pcgamer.com/welcome-to-the-new-home-of-pc-gamer/) • [1](https://www.pcgamer.com/celebrating-30-years-of-pc-gamer/) By that point the magazine archive held 30 years of issues, and the earliest surviving capture of pcgamer.com on Archive.org dates to October 18, 1996.[10](https://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gamer-website-history/)
## The magazine today
PC Gamer publishes monthly in separate UK and US editions, 13 issues per year. The UK edition carries a slightly higher page count than the US edition, with extra content.[11](https://www.pcgamer.com/games/pc-gamer-magazines-new-issue-is-on-sale-now-world-of-warcraft-forever/) Each issue combines a cover story, in-depth previews, reviews, hardware group tests, and features; recent cover stories have included [World of Warcraft](https://www.edgepedia.org/world-of-warcraft): Forever, [The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Songs of the Past](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-songs-of-the-past), and a [Duke Nukem](https://www.edgepedia.org/duke-nukem) anniversary celebration.[11](https://www.pcgamer.com/games/pc-gamer-magazines-new-issue-is-on-sale-now-world-of-warcraft-forever/) • [12](https://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gamer-print-magazine/) A single US issue costs $4.99, and the UK edition's annual subscription runs $141.99 in print or $58.99 in digital form.[11](https://www.pcgamer.com/games/pc-gamer-magazines-new-issue-is-on-sale-now-world-of-warcraft-forever/) • [5](https://www.pcgamer.com/games/pc-gamer-magazines-new-issue-is-on-sale-now-dinolords/)
The magazine's US operation is based at Future US LLC, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, with Robert Jones as print editor.[13](https://docshare.wps.com/document/pc-gamer-usa-issue-412-september-2026/114833/) Retailers describe it as the world's best-selling PC games magazine, a claim Future's own marketing repeats.[14](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pc-gamer-future-publishing/1119741267) The magazine also retains a cover-disk tradition: its floppy, CD, and DVD cover disks from the 1990s onward have been archived on Archive.org in a collection of 758 disks totaling 1.2 TB.[15](https://www.tomshardware.com/software/relive-the-pc-magazine-cover-disk-era-with-758-strong-archive-org-cd-rom-collection-1-2tb-treasure-trove-also-includes-floppy-disks-from-as-early-as-1993)
## Editorial operation
The brand describes itself as the "global authority on PC games" and covers news, features, esports, hardware testing, and reviews on pcgamer.com, alongside the print magazine.[3](https://www.pcgamer.com/about-pc-gamer/) A 2021 job posting described the global team as 26 full-time writers and editors across the UK, US, Canada, and Australia.[16](https://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gamer-is-hiring-a-magazine-editor-in-the-uk/) The site's current columns include FOV 90, Dungeon Master, Terminally Online, Character Select, Critical Hit, and No XP Needed.[3](https://www.pcgamer.com/about-pc-gamer/)
**Reviews policy.** PC Gamer has published scored game reviews since 1993. Its policy states that scores are final once a review is published, because scores are disseminated so widely online that changing them would cause confusion; the site instead reacts to post-release developments through later coverage. Reviewers may attend publisher-run review events as long as they can play the game on PC without interference, and the site values accuracy over timeliness when issuing a score.[7](https://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gamer-reviews-policy/) Hardware testing emphasizes how components perform in games and treats value as a key part of the methodology.[17](https://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gamer-how-we-test/)
**Game of the Year awards.** Rather than fixed categories, PC Gamer's annual awards ask each team member to nominate up to six games released that year; votes are tallied and the staff then debates the winners, including the overall Game of the Year, on a global call.[18](https://www.pcgamer.com/games/pc-gamers-game-of-the-year-awards-2025/) Because PC Gamer covers only one platform, award trackers such as Meta Awards count its Game of the Year as an overall pick rather than a platform award.[19](https://www.metaawards.org/methodology/)
**Events.** The brand runs the annual PC Gaming Show, including a Summer Game Fest showcase every June.[3](https://www.pcgamer.com/about-pc-gamer/) • [6](https://skwn.phtenga.com/?_=%2Fabout-pc-gamer%2F%23y8nDPbOzYvLPNyC0tXQ3J87YxWOj5iA%3D)
## Influence and reception
Academic work on game journalism has cited PC Gamer, alongside Edge, as an example of the printed publications that act as official channels of information about [video game culture](https://www.edgepedia.org/video-game-culture).[20](https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/downloads/dn39x533h.pdf) Within the field, the magazine is associated with a shift in review style: Kieron Gillen, who began writing for PC Gamer UK in the late 1990s, published "The New Games Journalism" in 2004, a manifesto proposing that games be covered through subjective personal narrative rather than consumer-report structure.[21](https://www.bosnan.net/critics/kieron-gillen)
Former staff have moved into game development itself; Gary Whitta, editor-in-chief during the 1990s, left PC Gamer and later received a screenwriting credit on the game Prey, whose development outlasted his tenure.[10](https://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gamer-website-history/)
The publication's commercial fortunes have tracked its publisher's. Future's 2016 annual results reported PC Gamer revenue up 43% year on year.[22](https://futureplc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/FY-2016-Results-RNS.doc.pdf) As print gaming magazines closed around it, with [Electronic Gaming Monthly](https://www.edgepedia.org/electronic-gaming-monthly) defunct in 2009 and GamePro in 2011, PC Gamer remained one of the long-lived survivors in its niche.[23](https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2e6b1195-3a1a-49f6-9326-c0c01d438fbf/content)
## Recent developments
In September 2026 the site launched a beta of a redesigned homepage called the Hyperfeed, adding short, ephemeral posts alongside conventional articles. The staff framed the experiment as a response to the effect of AI-integrated search on online publishing, aiming to make the homepage, already the brand's most-visited page, a richer experience.[24](https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/pc-gamer-hyperfeed-beta-is-live/) PC Gamer is a member of the [Independent Press Standards Organisation](https://www.edgepedia.org/independent-press-standards-organisation) (IPSO), which regulates the UK print and digital news industry.[3](https://www.pcgamer.com/about-pc-gamer/)
## References
1. [Celebrating 30 years of PC Gamer, PC Gamer](https://www.pcgamer.com/celebrating-30-years-of-pc-gamer/)
2. [Our magazine is now 25 years old, PC Gamer](https://www.pcgamer.com/our-magazine-is-now-25-years-old-get-it-digitally-when-you-join-the-pc-gamer-club/)
3. [About PC Gamer, PC Gamer](https://www.pcgamer.com/about-pc-gamer/)
4. [Welcome to PC Gamer, PC Gamer](https://www.pcgamer.com/welcome-to-the-new-home-of-pc-gamer/)
5. [PC Gamer magazine's new issue is on sale now: Dinolords, PC Gamer](https://www.pcgamer.com/games/pc-gamer-magazines-new-issue-is-on-sale-now-dinolords/)
6. [About PC Gamer (PC Gaming Show events), PC Gamer](https://skwn.phtenga.com/?_=%2Fabout-pc-gamer%2F%23y8nDPbOzYvLPNyC0tXQ3J87YxWOj5iA%3D)
7. [PC Gamer reviews policy, PC Gamer](https://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gamer-reviews-policy/)
8. [The Global Platform For Specialist Media, Future plc](https://futureplc.com/about/?jcode=UWP)
9. [PC Gamer, Bosnan magazines directory](https://www.bosnan.net/magazines/pc-gamer)
10. [The PC Gamer website through the decades, PC Gamer](https://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gamer-website-history/)
11. [PC Gamer magazine's new issue is on sale now: World of Warcraft: Forever, PC Gamer](https://www.pcgamer.com/games/pc-gamer-magazines-new-issue-is-on-sale-now-world-of-warcraft-forever/)
12. [PC Gamer – Print Magazine, PC Gamer](https://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gamer-print-magazine/)
13. [PC Gamer USA Issue 412, September 2026 (masthead)](https://docshare.wps.com/document/pc-gamer-usa-issue-412-september-2026/114833/)
14. [PC Gamer, Barnes & Noble digital magazine listing](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pc-gamer-future-publishing/1119741267)
15. [Relive the PC magazine cover disk era, Tom's Hardware](https://www.tomshardware.com/software/relive-the-pc-magazine-cover-disk-era-with-758-strong-archive-org-cd-rom-collection-1-2tb-treasure-trove-also-includes-floppy-disks-from-as-early-as-1993)
16. [PC Gamer is hiring a Magazine Editor in the UK, PC Gamer](https://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gamer-is-hiring-a-magazine-editor-in-the-uk/)
17. [How we test PC gaming hardware, PC Gamer](https://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gamer-how-we-test/)
18. [PC Gamer's Game of the Year Awards 2025, PC Gamer](https://www.pcgamer.com/games/pc-gamers-game-of-the-year-awards-2025/)
19. [How Game of the Year Awards Are Counted: Our Methodology, Meta Awards](https://www.metaawards.org/methodology/)
20. [Video game circulation and evaluation scholarship, McGill eScholarship](https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/downloads/dn39x533h.pdf)
21. [Kieron Gillen, Bosnan critics directory](https://www.bosnan.net/critics/kieron-gillen)
22. [Future plc FY 2016 Results](https://futureplc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/FY-2016-Results-RNS.doc.pdf)
23. [Limitations and further research, University of Oregon Scholars' Bank](https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2e6b1195-3a1a-49f6-9326-c0c01d438fbf/content)
24. [PC Gamer's Hyperfeed beta is live, PC Gamer](https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/pc-gamer-hyperfeed-beta-is-live/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Broadcasting and journalism › Periodicals and publishing › Magazines › Magazine titles by genre › Hobby, specialist, and trade magazines › Video-game magazines*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license