If you’re ever had the pleasure of going to Gamescom, the gaming expo that takes place in Cologne every August, you’ll already know that it’s a truly massive event.
If you’re a UK-based gamer who’s never travelled to Germany for this epic in-person showcase, you probably can’t even comprehend the scale of the venue.
Koelnmesse is like the Excel Centre in London, if you multiplied the Excel Centre by five times the scale, and then stitched all of those giant halls together with massive corridors, absolutely heaving with attendees.
To anyone that’s been to Gamescom in the past, it’s hard to understand the idea that this year’s iteration is even bigger than the ones we’ve seen before. But, well, it is.
Speaking to Felix Falk, one of the key organisers of Gamescom, we learned that this year, for the first time, all of the show floor space has been fully sold out to exhibitors.
Falk told us: “It's the first time we sold out the exhibition space. But to be honest, we are really happy to see new records being broken every year now for for a couple of years, which is amazing, because Gamescom is growing, becoming more diverse with great content and also more international, for years now.
“And so, before Gamescom 2026 has even started, we already know that we will have a new record when it comes to the number of exhibitors – it is more than 1,600, which is an all-time high.
“And also, in other areas like the Indie Area, we do have plus 16 per cent exhibitors. This shows there's a lot of content, and a lot of new partners at Gamescom.
“Just to mention one one more thing, we have 47 country pavilions, so that's again a plus, of more than 17 per cent, and this is something I find really great, because there are new countries like Morocco or Namibia or Cyprus, who are at Gamescom with a big country pavilion, which also enables small companies to come to Gamescom, which is, I think, a great development.”
View Green Video on the source websiteSo, more show floor space than ever before has been sold to exhibitors. Does that mean that attendees in-person will be slightly more cramped in comparison to previous years?
Falk says in no uncertain terms: “No, we don't make any compromises in the quality of stay for our visitors.
“We had this situation in 2019, when we had far more than 350,000 people on site. That this had a negative effect on the quality of stay for people.
“So, that's why since then we give less tickets into the market than we could do, because it's not important for us if 10,000 people more or less come to Gamescom on site.”
It’s more important that the people who do attend have a great time, basically.
Falk added: “This unique atmosphere on site, with all the people on site, is crucial to also show the power and the beauty of Gamescom and the excitement of fans. But it doesn't really matter if it's 10,000 more or less.
“So, what we did this year, when you ask what impact does the sold-out exhibition space have, this just means that less areas than in the past have been produced by us as Gamescom, but more space is used by exhibitors, and they do their activations.
“So, for example, the ways and routes in between the booths, the space, nothing changes. Also, the rest areas, or food, or everything that makes the stay nice, nothing changes. This is really important to us.”
And to what does Falk attribute the ongoing growth of Gamescom? Is it as simple as pure word of mouth from previous attendees and exhibitors, or is there more to it?
In Falk’s words: “It is the growing importance of Gamescom as a global brand, also, as you can see with successful editions with Gamescom Asia and Gamescom Latam.
“But it wouldn't be right to take credit as Gamescom only, because Gamescom is just the stage for the contents of our partners and of the industry. So, without all the exhibitors, all the announcements of studios, all the great work of everyone who's participating at Gamescom, Gamescom would be nothing.
“So, it's a joint effort that makes Gamescom the biggest festival in the world, and therefore also the growth, from regions like Asia, from South America, from the US in the past years, has played a big part in this success story of Gamescom.”
The growing importance of Gamescom, and the growing stature of gaming more generally, is also highlighted by some of the high-profile individuals and organisations that come to the event.
For example, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the federal president of Germany, will attend Gamescom for the first time this year to open Gamescom Congress (the part of the event that focuses on gaming’s potential in broader society and politics).
“It’s very exciting,” Falk says, “and this just shows that Gamescom is an important platform to show the importance of games and the games industry for broader economy, culture, innovation.
“So, we have a huge amount of guests, from politicians, but also representatives from economic, science institutions, and this just shows that more and more people understand the power and the positive force of gaming and want to use this potential.
Falk reels off a list of impressive attendees, including the World Health Organisation, the UN World Food Program, the United Nations, Europol, and the European Space Agency, who apparently say that “the best and most skilled people they find, as talents for their work, are gamers, and that's why they are at Gamescom".
For most of us, though, Gamescom is all about trying upcoming games, meeting like-minded people, and just awing at the sheer scale of talent being showcased.
It begins with Opening Night Live on Tuesday 25 August at 7pm BST, which you can watch it live on YouTube. Gamescom will then run through until Sunday 30 August for in-person attendees.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks for all of our coverage!
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Geoff Keighley teases Gamescom: Opening Night Live 2026Check out more of our Gaming coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
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