How expensive were events in 2025?
Game Conference Guide Insights - February 2026
In this month’s issue:
A deep look at the ticket prices and conference passes
Pitch your game to Poki!
Check out Indigo in Rotterdam
TL;DR No surprises here, we were paying more for some type of tickets. Conference passes were up by 2% compared to 2024 o average and general admission tickets to public shows were down by 16%. You could save more than 30% on average when buying passes during the early bird period.
Before I dive into the numbers, there are few changes I want to point out that may help you understand the results better.
Each year price comparison brings a different challenge. While naming convention on the tickets offered is not standardized (not all business passes are VIP, and a developer pass has a different price point than standard required for vendors), each event has a different early bird window (some are skipping it completely), there are events offering free admission but companies have to pay, or vice versa international business travelers are admitted for free, while public has to choose from several paid options.
All of this throws a curve ball into data collection, sorting and analysis. The biggest challenge so far was how many new events were added to the calendar, and how many were not able to continue with a new edition in 2025.
In some cases events changed their name (Indie Dev Day is BCN Game Fest nowadays), others skipped a year and have paused their activities or completely shut down operations. And with this, the results produced couldn’t be properly compared to previous year.
The decision was made to compare prices only between events that had hosted the 2024 edition against their 2025 editions. With this the sample data shrunk by one third, 35% for business events and 36% for public ones to be exact.
All prices in this report are in USD. The ticket prices are coming from their regular sales period, in between early bird and late bird (at the door), which is usually the longest. In 2025 I failed to capture ticket prices for 22 events (out of 343, not bad) and 7 events were cancelled.
With this out of the way, let’s look at the new amazing partner before counting the numbers.
PARTNER OF THE MONTH
Pitching a Web Game at your next event? Meet Poki!
Our partner this month is Poki! Poki is the leading platform for free online games and free browser based games, working with developers who want to build sustainable successes on the web. With 90M+ players and over 1B gameplays each month, Poki focuses on high-quality web games that load instantly, feel great to play, and work across devices.
For teams pitching web titles at industry events, Poki is especially interested in games that play seamlessly on mobile and PC. As a curated platform designed around easy access, Poki helps standout games reach large audiences, stay relevant longer, and maximize lifetime earnings. Developers can start by playtesting their games for free with real Poki players, before moving towards a publishing partnership.
EVENT SPOTLIGHT
INDIGO 2026 is The Premier Benelux Game Business Event, a two-day B2B meet-up in Rotterdam at World Trade Center Rotterdam on June 2–3, 2026. Expect a curated showcase of 30+ games, high-quality 1:1 meetings in our dedicated MeetToMatch area, and talks featuring industry legends alongside standout voices from the Benelux and beyond. We also celebrate one project that truly shines with the INDIGO Award.
It’s intentionally boutique: not a giant maze of booths, but a place where you get time and space for real conversations. Lunch is included, so the break becomes part of the experience, a shared moment where introductions happen naturally and you might find yourself chatting shoulder-to-shoulder with the people who inspired you.
Are there still free events?
There have been 62 truly free events out of 343 in total in 2025, which is a 22% decline compared to 2024. If we zoom in, only 9 of them were virtual and 53 were held on-site. Decrease of free events attributed to higher focus on on-site events, virtual events fell by 45% compared to 2024.
Majority of the free events in 2025 were business focused conferences, pitching sessions, curated meetings with publishers or gatherings of developers.
Showcases, like Indie Live Expo, Future Game Show, Steam Next Fests or LudoNaraccon, were not counted at all. Similar to a hi-profile trade show gamescom Asia was not considered as truly free event, as it was offering business passes for international visitors for free, but the general public had to buy a ticket.
Industry (B2B) Events
Prices for the industry events are plateauing, which is a direct reaction to the challenging job market, and offering discounted conference passes to drive the interest. Running events is not cheap and the prices for renting the venues, suppliers, AV production went up, which is reflected in the median price increase.
For a single B2B pass we were paying on average $502 (2% increase compared to $493 in 2024), $340 median (36% increase compared to $250 in 2024).
If you preferred VIP or top shelf experience, you paid on average $855 (2% increase compared to $827 in 2023), $702 median (8.7% decrease compared to $768 in 2023).
Even with a steep decline in the number of virtual events, you could attend a conference from your sofa. On average you paid $217 or $142 median for a virtual access, compared to 2024 it is 44% and 92% increase respectively. Long gone are free B2B virtual events.
And how about the early bird period?
As mentioned, it varies from event to event, but on average you could save 32% if you decided to buy a pass immediately. Usually these tickets are offered during the “save the date” period or shortly after.
If you want to save on your next event, the easiest solution is to subscribe to their newsletter and support them once the tickets go on sale.
Public (B2C) events
There is a difference in daily tickets across all B2C events, weekend entries are usually higher (Saturday is always the most expensive), while you can opt-in for fast passes, afternoon entries. The sample data was focusing on weekday daily rate where available.
For a single daily ticket in 2025 we were paying on average $38, (16% decrease compared to $45 in 2024), $34 median (29% increase compared to $26 in 2024).
All Access passes prices were selling on average for $99.95 (6% decrease compared to $106 in 2024), $50 median (33% decrease compared to $76 last year).
For top shelf experience (VIP) we were paying last year on average $426 (88% increase compared to 2024), $219 median (17% increase compared to 2024).
And this is it, all the data I managed to collect, put together and compared to the previous season.
Reports like these take an immense amount of time to compile. After finishing this one, I am reconsidering how deep I should go for next year, or if I should skip the price monitoring completely and have it available on demand.
Do let me know if ticket prices are valuable information to you.
Thank you for reading and see you at GDC in a few weeks!
🚀Which showcases to watch in February 2026
February 19 @ 10AM PT / 1PM ET / 7PM CET
February 19 @ 11:30AM PT / 2:30PM ET / 8:30PM CET
February 19 @ 12PM PT / 3PM ET / 9PM CET
📺Quebec Games Celebration Showcase
February 19 @ 3PM PT / 6PM ET / 12AM CET (Feb 20)
February 24 @ TBA
February 19 @ 10AM PT / 1PM ET / 7PM CET
Get all details, dates, times & direct links to broadcasts here.
⏰Upcoming Deadlines on the horizon
🎮Secret Sauce Showcase
Deadline: February 19, Broadcast + Steam showcase, entry: FreeDeadline: February 28, Broadcast + Steam showcase, entry: Free
Deadline: February 28, Broadcast + Steam showcase, entry: Free
🏆NYX Game Awards
Deadline: March 12, Awards, entry: $250 per gameDeadline: March 14, Broadcast + Steam showcase, entry: Free
Deadline: March 15, Broadcast, entry: Free
Get all deadlines here.
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Pavol Buday, curator @ GCG