The World’s Biggest gaming events
The video game industry is a modern titan of tech and represents one of the single largest entertainment industries in the world today. Worldwide gaming revenue in 2022 was estimated at a monumental $347 billion, a figure that is truly difficult to conceive.
With the popularity of video games, then, naturally comes a great deal of events around the world for gamers and game developers, and so today we’re going to look at some of the biggest gaming events in the world.
Let’s get started.
- Gamescom
Certainly, the biggest gaming event of the calendar year anywhere in the world in terms of attendance is Gamescom, held annually in Cologne, Germany. This event sees up to 320,000 attendees every year, making it among the most-attended gaming events in the year. It was first held in 2009 and has been running ever since, and by exhibition space, it is also bigger than any other gaming event in the year. It has even been expanded into Asia.
It is a chance to showcase new games and for players to see what’s coming up and try things out, as well as all the other trappings that usually come with conventions like social areas, business areas and even cosplay showcases. People travel from all over the world to attend this event, and so even the biggest game developers are fighting over positions and places in the event.
- SBC Barcelona
SBC Barcelona is another of the biggest gaming events of the year and is an annual conference and expedition specifically for the world of sports betting and iGaming. As the name suggests it is held in Barcelona each year, and covers a wide range of topics like sports betting, online casinos, affiliates, blockchain, metaverse, and everything in between. The event hosts as many as 450 speakers from the industry, with over 350 exhibitions on show.
At this, even many of the world’s best esports betting sites showcase their platforms and arrange marketing with teams and partners.
- Taipei Game Show
Though it is Taiwan’s only exhibition of its kind, the Taipei Game Show is nonetheless one of the biggest and most attended in the world, with an average attendance of around 300,000 people—and that’s not including exhibitors, journalists, and so on. This is a promotion and expo of games in the Taiwanese industry and beyond, as the event also hosts the Asia Pacific Game Summit.
Many from around the world might be surprised that Taiwan should hold one of the year’s biggest gaming events anywhere in the world, but the conference has indeed become one of the most important opportunities for promotion and exhibition certainly in the Asian gaming market but also more broadly. It hosts everything from the biggest new titles from AAA developers to the smaller, passionate projects of indie developers.
- Tokyo Game Show
It should come as no surprise that Tokyo should host one of the biggest gaming events of the year. The games market in Japan is among the biggest and most influential anywhere in the world, with around 75 million video game players generating around $22 billion in the industry. This makes Japan the third largest gaming market in the world, and so naturally the Tokyo Game Show is one of the biggest annual expos in the gaming world.
Given Japan’s prominence in the gaming industry, it is again a highly competitive arena for developers looking to catch the eyes of the roughly 270,000 people who attend the event every year. With all of the most recognizable names in the industry in attendance, this is one of the best chances for Japan and international audiences to get a glimpse at what is coming out in the near future from one of gaming’s biggest international markets.
- ChinaJoy
Finally, we have China’s biggest gaming event, known as ChinaJoy. This event sees similar attendance as Tokyo’s Game Show, at around 270,000—and given the relative size of the two nations, this shows just as much about the Tokyo Game Show as it does about ChinaJoy. ChinaJoy sees attendance of at least 100,000 and typically much higher including all online events and other peripherals.
People from as many as 30 different nations travel to China each year for this event and again developers naturally fight for a spot in the exhibition to showcase what they’ve got coming up.
It is all but impossible to overstate the enormity of the video game industry and the popularity of the products. Millions of people worldwide play them every single day and spend huge amounts of their money on these games and add-ons.
The competition, then, becomes fiercer than ever for developers, and events like these are, if nothing else, a great chance to showcase new talent. From Barcelona to Tokyo, worldwide you can find keen enthusiasts wanting space to get together with like-minded people and discuss their favorite games and upcoming titles.
