How Gamescom Became the World's Biggest Games Show, and Stayed There

Every August, the trains into Cologne fill up with people in hoodies and lanyards. By mid-morning the queues outside the exhibition centre stretch so far that the city's cathedral, a few minutes' walk away, has competition as its biggest crowd-puller. This is gamescom, and in an age when most game news arrives through a livestream, it is still the largest in-person games event in the world.

The numbers from the 2026 show, held from August 26 to 30, underline the point. Gamescom drew 368,000 visitors from 131 countries, sold out about 233,000 square metres of gross exhibition space and hosted a record 1,743 exhibitors from 66 countries, up 11% on 2025. Seventy-two per cent of those exhibitors came from abroad. More than 36,000 of the visitors were trade visitors, about half of them international.

So how did a show that started in 2009 end up outlasting E3? The short answer: it never had to choose between fans and business.

From Leipzig to Cologne

Gamescom's ancestor was the Games Convention in Leipzig, which ran from 2002 to 2008. It grew so fast that the city's venue started to look too small, and in 2008 the German trade association BIU announced a successor in Cologne. The first gamescom opened on August 19, 2009, and drew about 245,000 people over five days.

The show has two owners of a sort. The venue and much of the organisation belong to Koelnmesse, the city's trade-fair company. The content side belongs to game, the German games industry association, which took over from BIU when the two merged in 2018. That partnership matters. A trade-fair operator wants full halls; an industry association wants its members to get value from the money they spend. Gamescom has to satisfy both.

Two shows under one roof

The key to gamescom's business model is that it is really two events. The trade side, centred on a business area for meetings between publishers, investors, service companies and studios, starts a day before the public halls open. The consumer side, which fills most of the halls, is what the TV cameras see: playable demos, merchandise, stage shows and long queues.

E3 tried for years to be one or the other. It was a closed trade show until 2017 and then struggled to bolt on a public audience. Gamescom was built with both from the start, which means exhibitors can justify the cost twice: once for the deals they sign in the business area and once for the players they meet on the floor.

The international growth shows up in the business area most of all. Gamescom says 48 country pavilions representing 41 countries came in 2026, and the strongest growth in trade visitors came from Brazil, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States. For a small studio from abroad, a national pavilion is often the cheapest way to get a desk in front of publishers.

Opening Night Live: the show inside the show

In 2019, gamescom added the thing that turned it into a global media event: Opening Night Live, a livestreamed showcase hosted by Geoff Keighley, the producer behind The Game Awards. It runs at the start of gamescom week, before the business and public days, and works like a compressed E3 press conference: a parade of trailers and announcements.

ONL is how gamescom stays relevant to people who will never visit Cologne. In 2026 the show said Opening Night Live alone reached more than 78 million views, and the whole programme of streams passed 624 million views by the Saturday evening.

It is also a revenue line. Publishers pay to place trailers in these showcases. Reported price lists are rarely confirmed, but in December 2025 one report put ONL's 2025 rates at about $150,000 for 30 seconds and $210,000 for one minute. Free slots still exist for some indie games and big announcements, and the show does not publish its prices.

The show also keeps adding formats that travel well online. In 2026 it hosted gamescom GDQ, the European premiere of the charity speedrunning marathon Games Done Quick, which won the show's Heart of Gaming Award. The gamescom awesome indies show passed 302,000 views, up more than 670%, and about 80,000 people joined the free city festival in Cologne's streets. Each of these is cheap compared with a hall booth, but together they keep the brand in front of players all week.

The pandemic test

Every big event faced the same test in 2020, and gamescom's answer is part of why it is still standing. Germany banned large public gatherings, so the 2020 show went online, with Opening Night Live as its centrepiece. 2021 was a mix of online and live events. By 2022 the halls were back, with 265,000 visitors, rising to 320,000 in 2023, more than 335,000 in 2024, more than 357,000 in 2025 and 368,000 in 2026.

The record of the pre-pandemic era, about 370,000 in 2018, has not quite been beaten in visitor numbers. But 2026 set records where the business is heading: more exhibitors, more countries and more visitors from abroad, up 6% on 2025.

Exporting the brand

Like a successful restaurant opening branches, gamescom now runs events on other continents. Gamescom asia started in Singapore in 2021 and in 2025 joined forces with the Thailand Game Show in Bangkok; the 2026 edition ran from October 29 to November 1. Gamescom latam began in Brazil in 2024, built on a 2023 deal with the BIG Festival and Omelete Company, and its next edition runs in São Paulo from April 22 to 25, 2027. There is also gamescom lan in Cologne each February and a growing gamescom dev conference, which registered 6,200 participants in 2026.

Each spin-off uses the same mix: a business area for deal-making, a public show and a stream. Each also gives Koelnmesse and game a presence in the regions where the next generation of players and studios is growing fastest.

By the numbers

• 368,000: visitors at gamescom 2026, from 131 countries
• 1,743: exhibitors from 66 countries, up 11%
• 72%: share of exhibitors from outside Germany
• 36,000+: trade visitors, about half from abroad
• 78 million+: Opening Night Live views
• 233,000 m²: gross exhibition space, sold out
• 245,000: visitors at the first gamescom in 2009

What to watch

Gamescom 2027 runs from August 23 to 29 in Cologne, with Opening Night Live on August 24, the business and media day on August 25 and public days from August 26.

WGC's take: gamescom's advantage is less about Germany than about design. It gives publishers a reason to pay for a stand, a reason to buy a trailer slot and a reason to send business people, all in one week. E3 could only ever offer one of those at a time. The risk is the same one that killed E3: if the biggest companies decide a stream of their own is enough, the halls will feel it first. For now, the record exhibitor list says the opposite is happening. Korean studios hoping to break into Europe should treat Cologne, not Los Angeles, as the stage that matters.