How gamescom Grew Into the World’s Biggest Gaming Event

From Leipzig in 2002 to 368,000 visitors in Cologne

gamescom is now described by its co-organiser, game – The German Games Industry Association, as the world’s biggest games event. It did not begin at this scale, and the story starts before gamescom itself even existed.

In 2026, gamescom welcomed 368,000 visitors from 131 countries to Cologne, alongside 1,743 exhibitors and more than 36,000 trade visitors. For the first time, its exhibition space was completely sold out. Those figures make the modern event look almost inevitable, but gamescom’s roots stretch back to a different German city and a different gaming show.

The modern event also covers far more than giant publisher booths. Indies have become an increasingly visible part of the show, something we saw again in our 10 best indie games revealed at gamescom 2026.

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The story starts in Leipzig, not Cologne

The direct predecessor to gamescom was the Games Convention in Leipzig. Leipziger Messe records its first Games Convention in 2002, describing it as Europe’s first experience and trade fair for interactive entertainment, hardware, information, and edutainment.

The event grew quickly. By 2007 it was drawing around 185,000 visitors, and the final major Leipzig edition in 2008 reached roughly 203,000 visitors and 547 exhibitors.

The German games industry association at the time argued that Leipzig’s hotel capacity, transport infrastructure, and international flight connections were limiting further growth. Cologne offered a larger international transport hub and the Koelnmesse exhibition grounds.

There was another complication: the Games Convention name belonged to Leipziger Messe. The industry-backed event in Cologne therefore needed a new identity. That new brand was gamescom.

2009: gamescom opens in Cologne already huge

The first gamescom took place in Cologne in August 2009. It was not a small event waiting to grow. It arrived with 245,000 visitors, 458 exhibitors from 31 countries, and around 17,000 trade visitors.

That was about 42,000 more visitors than the final Leipzig Games Convention had attracted a year earlier. The second gamescom then climbed to 254,000 visitors in 2010, with 505 exhibitors from 33 countries. game’s 2010 event report also records the first edition’s 245,000 visitors, 458 exhibitors, and 17,000 trade visitors.

The climb from 245,000 to 373,000 visitors

Through the 2010s, gamescom kept expanding its audience, exhibitor count, and international reach. The growth was not perfectly linear, but several years changed the scale of the event.

In 2017, German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened gamescom for the first time. A year later, the event passed 1,000 exhibitors. Then 2019 produced the attendance figure that still stands as the physical record: 373,000 visitors.

2019 also introduced gamescom Opening Night Live, hosted by Geoff Keighley. The first show reached more than half a million concurrent viewers, giving gamescom a much larger opening-night broadcast that could reach people who were nowhere near Cologne. The 2019 event report recorded 1,153 exhibitors and 218,000 square metres of exhibition space alongside the 373,000 visitors.

2020 and 2021 forced gamescom to become digital

The COVID-19 pandemic broke the physical growth story. gamescom could not operate as a normal Cologne event in 2020 or 2021, so both editions became digital.

Instead of disappearing for two years, the organisers expanded gamescom now, Opening Night Live, digital shows, and online indie formats. In 2021, around 13 million people watched gamescom shows, Opening Night Live reached around 5.8 million live viewers, and the event was followed in more than 180 countries, according to game’s 2021 post-event report.

That period changed gamescom permanently. The halls remained central when the event returned, but the worldwide online audience was no longer treated as an extra. Digital reach had become part of the event itself.

The physical comeback started in 2022

gamescom returned to Cologne in 2022 with 265,000 visitors and more than 1,100 exhibitors from 53 countries. Physical attendance was well below the 2019 peak, but the online programme still generated more than 130 million views by Saturday evening.

The recovery then accelerated: 320,000 visitors in 2023, 335,000 in 2024, and 357,000 in 2025. At the same time, the exhibitor count kept moving beyond pre-pandemic levels.

2026: nearly record crowds and a record number of exhibitors

gamescom 2026 did not break the 2019 physical attendance record, but by several other measures it was the largest edition yet.

The event drew 368,000 visitors from 131 countries, more than 36,000 trade visitors, and a record 1,743 exhibitors. For the first time, the available exhibition area sold out completely. By Saturday evening, gamescom’s digital content had generated more than 624 million views worldwide, including 78 million for Opening Night Live. Those figures come from the official 2026 post-event report.

Compared with the first Cologne event in 2009, physical attendance is up by roughly 50 percent, while the number of exhibitors has grown from 458 to 1,743, almost four times as many.

gamescom stopped being only a Cologne event

The next stage of the story is international expansion.

gamescom asia launched in Singapore in 2021. After four editions there, it moved to Bangkok in 2025 and joined forces with Thailand Game Show. The first combined gamescom asia x Thailand Game Show attracted 206,159 visitors from 95 countries, 5,590 business visitors, and 294 exhibitors and pavilions, according to the official 2025 event report.

The Bangkok event returns from October 29 to November 1, 2026 at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, with the show expanding beyond 35,000 square metres. We looked at the importance of that expansion for smaller studios in From Cologne to Bangkok: Why Gamescom Remains Crucial for Indie Developers.

In Latin America, gamescom joined forces with Brazil’s established BIG Festival to create gamescom latam in São Paulo in 2024. The 2026 edition welcomed more than 154,000 visitors, showing that gamescom is now a multi-region event brand rather than a single annual gathering in Germany.

Why gamescom kept growing

Part of gamescom’s strength is that it has never been built for just one audience. The entertainment area serves the public, the business area brings together developers, publishers, investors, media, and service companies, while developer events, the gamescom congress, indie areas, livestreams, and Opening Night Live widen the audience again.

That combination helped gamescom survive a venue change, scale beyond 300,000 annual visitors, adapt through two digital-only pandemic years, and then return with more exhibitors than ever.

The numbers tell the story clearly. What began in Cologne in 2009 with 245,000 visitors and 458 exhibitors reached 368,000 visitors and 1,743 exhibitors in 2026. The 2019 physical attendance record is still intact, but the exhibitor base, international reach, and digital audience have all expanded far beyond the gamescom that opened its doors 17 years ago.

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