Where Gamers Go to Stand in Queues

From August 21 to 25, Gamescom, one of the world's biggest video game trade fairs, will once again take place in Cologne, Germany. This year, the event will see more than 1,400 exhibitors from 64 countries, most of which are connected to the digital games industry in some capacity. While the trade exhibition consistently ranked first worldwide in attendance figures before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, it has been relegated to third place in 2023, with attendee numbers still significantly below those of 2019.

As our chart based on media and organizer reports shows, the China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference, or ChinaJoy, is the biggest video game convention in terms of attendees. Its 2023 edition saw 338,000 entries over four days, reflecting the status of China as the second-biggest market for video games despite the government of the People's Republic being notoriously strict in terms of video game licenses for its domestic market. ChinaJoy is closely followed by the Brazil Games Show with 328,000 attendees. This event can be considered an outlier since most of the best-attended trade shows take place in Europe or Asia.

Even when factoring out the effects of the pandemic, the importance of in-person video game conventions on a large scale has been waning over the past years. For example, 2019 was the first year that Sony didn't participate in the U.S. video game trade fair E3, which has become officially defunct but was considered the most important event for the global games industry for decades. Sony opted to host its independent showcase State of Play instead. Electronic Arts canceled their EA Play live event for 2022 before E3 itself was canceled, and for Nintendo, the pre-recorded regular Nintendo Direct showcases have arguably become more important than B2C presences at video game conventions. Microsoft also tends to feature its most relevant titles in its Xbox Developer Direct events, revealing the first gameplay footage of its upcoming Indiana Jones game on January 18.

The annual Game Awards hosted by Geoff Keighley are seen as another competitor to the model of major announcements at trade fairs, with the 2023 edition seeing the reveals of games like Monster Hunter Wilds, a new entry into the classic Crazy Taxi franchise and Jurassic Park: Survival. However, Keighley has been swinging both ways for a while now: He has hosted Gamescom Opening Night Live, which regularly shows world premieres and provides further information on already-announced games the day before Gamescom proper opens its doors, since 2019.