Polygon is an American entertainment website by Vox Media covering video games, movies, television, and other popular culture.

At its October 2012 launch as Vox Media's third property, Polygon sought to distinguish itself by focusing on the stories of the people behind video games and long-form magazine-style feature articles.

Vox Media's chief executive officer, Jim Bankoff, approached Joystiq editor-in-chief Christopher Grant in early 2011 about starting a video game website.

Grant wanted the new site to compete with top gaming websites GameSpot and IGN, but still be able to run longform "magazine-style journalism" that could be of historic interest.

[7] The Polygon team includes remote workers based in Philadelphia, Huntington, San Francisco, Sydney, London, and Austin, while Vox Media is headquartered in New York City and Washington, D.C.[8][9] The site was developed over the course of ten months, where the staff chose the site's name and set standards for their reporting[2] and review score scale.

[12] Polygon hired Susana Polo, founder of The Mary Sue, in 2015, which marked a transition in the site's scope to add pop culture and entertainment alongside their video game coverage.

[13] GamesIndustry added that the hire marked a changing cultural sensibility in game and tech media towards the acceptance of progressive, feminist principles in the wake of Gamergate.

[13] Vox Media later created several sites dedicated to specific video games with editorial staff from Polygon and SB Nation: The Rift Herald (for League of Legends) in March 2016,[14] and The Flying Courier (for Dota 2) and Heroes Never Die (for Overwatch) in June 2017.

[15] Brian Crecente left Polygon for Rolling Stone's gaming website Glixel in July 2017,[16] and Chris Plante replaced him as Executive Editor.

[19] On December 28, 2020, Brian David Gilbert announced he was leaving Polygon via Twitter and his final Unraveled video, saying he left "because it feels like the right time!".

[4] At the site's outset, Polygon planned to run multiple longform feature articles weekly, which they intended to be comparable in intent to the cover stories of magazines.

Forbes wrote that Vox Media's avoidance of content farm and news aggregator tactics, and interest shown in building communities is desirable to "magazine-quality advertisers".