March 22, 2026
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PC Gamer Recommends RSS Readers in a 37MB Article That Just Keeps Downloading
Commenters clash: “Use an ad blocker” vs “This is just the web” as the page chugs on
TLDR: A PC Gamer article about RSS loaded as a huge, ever-growing page, prompting claims of thousands of ad calls and hundreds of megabytes. Commenters split between “just use an ad blocker,” “this is what normal users face,” and “RSS me out of here,” spotlighting how bloated browsing has become and why escape routes matter.
PC Gamer’s latest page is getting roasted for being a 37MB beast that keeps slurping data like it’s at an all-you-can-eat buffet. The kicker? It’s recommending old-school RSS readers while the site itself loads pop-ups, cookies banners, and a skyline of ads. Irony level: legendary. One commenter winked, “‘misconfigured’ as in no adblocker? ;-),” sparking a familiar internet showdown.
On one side, the snark squad insists the fix is simple: install an ad blocker and stop whining. On the other, a reality check: as one user points out, most people browse like normal humans—with no blockers—and this is exactly what they see. Another demanded receipts, shouting for a network recording and promising to “believe Chrome’s dev tools,” while a brave tester claimed after five minutes and a simple scroll they saw 4,300 requests and 238MB downloaded. That’s not a page; that’s a boss fight.
Meanwhile, the RSS crowd is cheering, arguing that feeds (yes, the simple list of articles you read in an app) cut through pop-ups and tracking. But even that has drama: one user trying to go 100% RSS laments that many paid sites don’t provide full articles and shove readers back into the ad jungle. Whether you see ad blockers as survival gear or cheating, the mood is clear: the modern web is exhausting. PC Gamer picked the worst stage to recommend the escape hatch.
Key Points
- •The PC Gamer page shows a notification popup and a newsletter popup on arrival, with a dimmed background and at least five visible ads.
- •After clearing popups, the page presents five ads along with only a title and a subtitle.
- •The webpage’s initial load size is approximately 37MB.
- •Within five minutes of visiting, the site downloads nearly half a gigabyte of additional advertising content.
- •The article highlights RSS readers as a way to access content without the heavy ad and popup load.