How Coupons Work at PC Gamer
Find out how we find, verify, and make money from our coupon codes, while still offering a discount for our audience.
Why does PC Gamer offer coupon codes?
PC Gamer has been at the forefront of PC gaming for over 30 years now, and our years of experience have earned us a reputation as a trusted authority in our field. Through all of our content, from game reviews and hardware testing to features and news, we aim to live up to our reputation as the global authority on PC Gaming.
As the biggest PC gaming outlet in the world, we offer our honest criticism of a wide range of games and hardware to help our readers decide which purchases are best for them. We're no strangers to deals either and are happy to help our audience save money on the products that matter most to them. That’s where coupon codes come in. The codes we source and list on our site are from retailers that we swear by, and no third parties are involved in that process.
How does PC Gamer source our coupon codes?
All the coupon codes and related content that you’ll find on PC Gamer have been sourced or produced ourselves. We don’t work with any third parties to curate our coupons—we trust our expertise, and use our knowledge of the industry to source codes we think our audience might want or need.
PC Gamer is part of Future PLC, and that grants us access to a central e-commerce technology called Hawk. Using Hawk, we can easily list coupons, deals, and sale information on our pages. We also work with the wider PC Gamer team to ensure that the retailers we select are ones we trust and would buy from ourselves.
Our dedicated coupons team maintains close working relationships with our chosen retailers and associated affiliate networks. By maintaining these relationships, we stay up to date with upcoming discounts and can bring our audience exclusive vouchers and codes, which our dedicated team adds to our comprehensive database.
Our experts also scour retailers’ websites and newsletters, and compare our lists with competitor websites, keeping their eyes peeled for any codes we might have missed. We test every code before it's listed on PC Gamer to ensure that our audience only finds working codes, and each of our retailer pages is checked and updated daily.
Find out how coupons at Future PLC work.
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Why trust PC Gamer?
Since its founding in 1993, PC Gamer has earned a reputation as the #1 single-format gaming site in the world. We’ve achieved this by maintaining high standards in everything we do.
The coupon codes found on our site are no exception to this rule. Our dedicated coupons team has curated a list of brands and retailers that we stand by. Every code and deal is tested and verified to ensure that they offer genuine savings on the games, hardware, or services that we recommend.
We’re proud to have become a reliable and leading source of information on PC gaming, and we protect that status by producing all of our coupon content in-house. No third parties contribute to our coupon codes or pages—just our experts using their knowledge to help inform our audience’s purchases.
Find out more about why we’re a trusted publication here.
How do we make money?
When you use a coupon code or offer from PC Gamer to make a purchase, we may receive compensation.
All of our coupons, discounts, and deals are updated daily by our team of editors, deal experts, and developers. Our teams are paid and our website costs are covered by the money we earn from our coupons, which we get through commission.
Whenever a member of our audience decides to use one of our coupon codes and clicks on it, they’re brought to the brand’s website to start shopping. As they arrive, a cookie is dropped that tells the retailer’s website that they’ve come from PC Gamer. If they then decide to make a purchase, PC Gamer may earn a commission. The value of that commission depends on the relationship we have with that brand and the products our reader buys.
Our parent site, Future PLC has in-depth terms and conditions that detail the different ways that we make money across the group's publications. You can also find out more about Future PLC.
How do we test coupon codes?
All of our coupon codes are tested to ensure that our audience has a reliable experience. We test codes by using them ourselves, just like our readers would. Every time we find a new coupon code, a member of our team will go to the retailer’s website, add products to their shopping cart, ensure they meet any terms and conditions, and proceed to checkout.
Here, we look for a dedicated coupon code field, where we will enter the new code and try to apply it to our order. If the code doesn’t work as intended, we don’t add it to our coupon page. If the code does work, it’s added to the retailer’s dedicated page. Our team then returns to the code the next day and tests it again to make sure it still works as expected.
Testing in this way means we can be confident that we only list working codes on our coupon pages. However, sometimes retailers can discontinue codes without giving us notice or before we've retested. To try and catch any expired codes, our team checks daily, removing any that have expired as soon as possible. We also don’t include any user-specific or one-time-use codes on our pages, as these usually stop working once someone has redeemed them.
What if a discount code doesn’t work?
The coupon codes on PC Gamer may be subject to terms and conditions before they can be applied. These may include the purchase of specific products, meeting a minimum spend threshold, or verifying your status as a student, health worker, or member of the military to qualify for a discount scheme. You can double-check any requirements by clicking the button marked “View terms & conditions”, which can be found below the offer text.
If your code still isn’t accepted once you’ve confirmed that you meet any terms and conditions, our team is here to help. You can contact our support team by emailing coupons.pcgamer@futurenet.com, and someone will be in touch as soon as possible to help.