"Rest in Piss Polygon": A Gaming Media Bloodbath

The Google Trends graph tells the story better than any article ever could. Polygon, Kotaku, IGN, PC Gamer—all of them showing a decade-long decline in search interest, with the sharpest drop concentrated in the last 90 days. "They are dying and they are going extinct," Asmongold says, pulling up the data on stream. "We've killed them. We have. And by the way, you're welcome."

The occasion for this celebration is Polygon's sale to Valnet, a media holding company, with the majority of its staff laid off. Former employees took to Bluesky to announce they were suddenly out of work—"gutted, sad, feel completely fucked," wrote one. Another called the sale "atrocious decisions" by Vox Media management. Asmongold reads their posts aloud with undisguised glee, then offers his own verdict: "Your contributions to the gaming industry were worthless. Your content was worthless. You created negative value."

The Parasite Theory of Games Journalism