From Ilsan to Busan: How G-STAR Became Korea's Game Show, and What It Sells
G-STAR began in 2005 with a dream of joining the world's top three game shows. Twenty-one years and one city later, it draws about 200,000 people a year, even as Korea's biggest publishers look to Tokyo. The business of Korea's biggest games fair.
In November 2005, about 150 game companies set up booths at KINTEX in Ilsan, just outside Seoul, for a brand-new show. Its organisers had a big ambition: to build a games fair that could stand alongside the world's top three. Its staff had a smaller problem: they had to create almost everything from scratch, and many people did not even know when or where the show was.
That first G-STAR, from November 10 to 13, 2005, is the ancestor of the show that opens in Busan on November 19, 2026. Twenty-one years on, G-STAR is Korea's biggest games event and one of the largest in Asia. It is also a show that has to keep reinventing itself as Korean publishers change where, and how, they sell games.
Born to replace a crowd of small shows
Before G-STAR, Korea had many small and mid-sized games exhibitions, none of which drew much attention. The main one, the Korea Game Expo (KAMEX), had run every year until 2004. The government wanted one national show, and two ministries, the then Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Information and Communication, backed the new event together with the Korea Game Industry Association.
Industry attitudes were sceptical at first. Korean companies preferred overseas shows for export deals, and foreign exhibitors were thin on the ground. Still, Korean reporting at the time judged the debut a reasonable success.
The move to Busan
In 2009, G-STAR moved to BEXCO, the convention centre in Busan, which offered more space than KINTEX. It has been there ever since. The show is now presented by the Korea Association of Game Industry (K-GAMES) and the Busan IT Promotion Agency, and the city treats it as one of its signature events each November.
The move changed the show's character. A Busan G-STAR is a destination: students travel from across the country, often in the week after Korea's university entrance exam, and the surrounding hotels and restaurants fill up. The Korea Game Awards, the industry's top prize night, are held in Busan the day before G-STAR opens; the 2026 ceremony is on November 18.
Attendance through the years
Published figures give a sense of the show's ups and downs:
- 2012: 296,169 visitors, the highest in the published figures
- 2013: 188,707
- 2015: 209,617
- 2016: 161,908
- 2019: 244,309, with 2,445 business visitors
- 2021: 28,000, the first in-person show after the pandemic
- 2022: 184,000
- 2023: 197,000
- 2024: 215,000
- 2025: about 202,000, across 3,269 booths
How the show makes money
Like gamescom in Cologne, G-STAR runs two shows in one. The public halls, labelled BTC (business-to-consumer), are where publishers build booths, run demos and stage influencer shows. The BTB (business-to-business) area hosts meetings between developers, publishers, investors and buyers. In 2025, the BTB area on the third floor of BEXCO's second hall ran for three days, online and offline, and attracted 2,190 paid buyers.
On top of that sit sponsorships. In 2025, NCSOFT was the Diamond main sponsor, using the role to show five new games, including AION 2, and a dome-shaped cinema. The conference programme, G-CON, has become a draw in its own right: the 2025 edition, themed on narrative, brought speakers including Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii, Hideki Kamiya, Yoko Taro and Akira Yamaoka. The indie area, Indie Showcase: Galaxy, hosted 80 studios from 20 countries over 400 booths.
Why it matters
G-STAR's challenge is the same one that hit E3: the biggest publishers no longer need it. In 2026, Nexon, NCSOFT and Netmarble are not in the main exhibition, having put their effort into the Tokyo Game Show and Japanese players. The show's answer has been to lean on foreign exhibitors, indie studios, talks and the B2B area, and on companies like Krafton, which makes its tenth straight appearance this year.
WGC's take: G-STAR does not need to be E3, and it should not try. Its strength is that it is the one week a year when Korean players, students and small studios share a floor with global publishers. As long as it keeps that role, and keeps Busan's crowds coming, it has a future. For where the big three went instead, read our look at Tokyo Game Show 2026.