Performance Audit Reveals Severe PCGamer Article Bloat
A March 2026 performance audit of a PCGamer article finds extreme page bloat, with ad-tech and tracking responsible for over 82% of network traffic. The core article contains 10–15 KB of text and ~150 KB of images, yet the page issues 431+ network requests, transfers 5.5 MB within 60 seconds (18.8 MB decoded) and can balloon above 200 MB in Firefox due to autoplay video ads.
Scoring Rationale
Moderate practical relevance and clear metrics, valuable for publishers and engineers, limited by single-site focus and non-peer-reviewed source.
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Sources
- Read OriginalResearch: PCGamer Article Performance Auditsimonwillison.net
