PC Gamer Poll Shows 37% Know Where Their PC Belongs

PC Gamer has published the results of a reader poll asking, “Where does your gaming PC live?” and only 37% of people who took the challenge got the right answer. That matters because the poll isn’t just a bit of forum fun; it shows how many readers still treat a gaming PC like furniture instead of a piece of hardware that needs a decent home.

The poll also puts a few other habits on the record, including the 34% of respondents who think it’s fine to keep a PC on the floor and the 7% who say they use a living room PC. If you care about airflow, dust, and not turning your rig into a carpet-level lint trap, this is exactly the sort of reader behaviour worth looking at.

Votes (%)

PC Gamer framed the question plainly: “Where does your PC live?” and then repeated it as “Where does your gaming PC live?” The result was clear enough, even if the answers weren’t always sensible. Only 37% of those who took up the challenge answered correctly, which means the majority either disagreed with the premise or simply embraced chaos.

That split matters in practical terms. A PC on the floor sits in the path of dust, carpet fibres, and crumbs, which is why the article calls that setup “Among the dust and cobwebs and carpet and crumbs. Heathens.” That’s not subtle, but it gets the point across: floor placement makes maintenance harder and gives your machine a worse daily life.

More surprising was the 7% of folk who said they’re running a living room PC. The article adds, “And the Steam Machine isn't even out yet.” That line lands because it suggests some readers already prefer a sofa-side setup, whether for convenience, a bigger screen, or just because they’ve decided the desk battle is over.

Then there’s the wall-mounted crowd. PC Gamer says 81 readers have their PCs bolted to the wall, and the article responds with “well, I salute you.” That’s the most extreme answer in the poll, but it also makes sense for anyone trying to keep a system off the floor, cut down on dust exposure, and turn a gaming rig into more of a display piece.

• 37% of those who took up the challenge answered correctly.
• 34% of respondents think it’s acceptable to keep a PC down on the floor.
• 7% of folk who answered the quiz are rocking a living room PC.
• 81 PC Gamer readers out there have their PCs bolted to the wall.
• “Where does your PC live?”
• “Where does your gaming PC live?”

What PC Gamer’s Reader Poll Says About Habits

The poll sits alongside another reader question from the past week, when PC Gamer asked about AI use. The article says, “Turns out a lot of PC Gamer readers are resolutely not using DLSS or FSR... if they're being honest 🙃” That’s a useful reminder that reader habits don’t always line up with the latest hardware features, even when those features can make games run better or look cleaner.

For players, the bigger takeaway is simple: hardware choices are personal, but they still have consequences. A PC on the floor picks up more grime, a living room PC changes how you play, and a wall-mounted rig takes commitment. None of those setups is illegal, obviously, but the poll suggests PC Gamer readers have very different ideas about what counts as sensible.

Dave’s byline also gives the piece some useful context. He says he’s been gaming since “Zaxxon and Lady Bug on the Colecovision,” used code books for the Commodore Vic 20, built his first gaming PC at 16, and later wrote for Official PlayStation Magazine, Xbox World, PC Format, PC Gamer, TechRadar, and T3. That background explains the tone here: this is a writer who’s seen enough questionable PC setups to know when to call them out.

For now, the poll stands as a neat snapshot of how PC Gamer readers actually live with their machines. The floor crowd is still too large, the wall crowd deserves respect, and the living room crowd is apparently getting in early ahead of the Steam Machine. If PC Gamer keeps asking readers these odd-but-revealing questions, the next result should be just as entertaining — and probably just as revealing about how people really use their rigs.