Paying more for events is the new normal
Game Conference Guide Insights - February 2023
In 2022 I started paying more attention to ticket prices while gathering data about events which brings us to a this months’ topic. How inflation is affecting the prices, by how much and are the events going to be more expensive?
To give you TL;DR answer, yes, the ticket prices went up. As always with a short answer like this “it is complicated” must follow.
And if you are wondering, yes, GDC ticket prices increased compared to last year.
Let’s break it down, but first!
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A bit transparency before we delve deep into data. When a new event is added to the Game Conference Guide a few metrics not visible to public are added or manually entered. Ticket range, various description markers, reports from organizers with attendance levels, but also technical stuff like time stamp that no one really cares.
As many events started to going back to physical formats the ticket range was important from a perspective of a conference organizer. To see where others are seeing the ceiling for the most expensive ticket (call it VIP, Premium, or Business) and what they are doing with virtual offering and if they are leaving it available for free.
The ticket range got complicated over the course of the last year. New tiers were added and expanded the offering, thus making the range I was collecting not that precise. Remember the good old days where we had only few types of tickets (daily, multiple, student / professional)? Well, today the range includes, Online, Online Plus, Developer Plus, family packages, special rates for different groups of companies not to mention the periods (early bird, holidays) during which you can score discounted tickets.
When reviewing the data below do it with a pinch of salt.
A completely different method of gathering ticket prices is already in use. The next report will include averages and medians for standard pass (entry level / daily pass), most expensive tier and virtual if it was offered. This might change based on the data I will accumulate over the year, but these are the basics I will be using from now on. The goal is to bring clarity and more precise data collection.
And with this in mind, the current ticket ranges you can find in the database now are reflecting this. The entries are prioritizing entry level /standard / one-day tickets rather a cheaper online option offering either partial or just passive experience. Yes, you can still find events you can attend completely for free mainly organized by trade missions or with heavy subsidies from governmental bodies or showcases.
Okay, let’s look at the prices for 2022 events.
Are we paying more for events?
Last year you could attend 76 (out of 291) events completely free of charge; 39 being showcases and press conferences broadcasted to everyone, 26 out of them were B2B focused, rest were targeting students and public. You could watch for example The Game Awards for free on your device, but to sit in the audience, you had to pay. Some indie festivals were offering access for free, but the full experience was behind a paywall. And many organizers who allowed to participate completely for free back in 2021 raised the prices, some even tiered the online passes. You could watch, but you couldn’t interact, which is becoming a new standard nowadays.
For entry level tickets you were paying in 2022 on average $190 (increase by 98% compared to 2021, when the average was at $96), $107 median (117% increase compared to $50 median in 2021), and $370 for the top experience (22% increase compared to 302$ average in 2021), $268 median (69% increase from $159 median last year).
Bear in mind, the comparisons are between 2022 when events returned to physical and 2021 when majority happened virtually, and you can see that in the massive bump in the pricing.
On the B2C side, things are looking different. Tickets were averaging at $32 (23% decrease from $42 average in 2021) median at $13 (63% decrease compared to 35$ median in 2021). You could spend as much as $141 for the full experience (68% increase compared to $84 average in 2021) or $122 median (60% increase compared to 76$ median in 2021) for the top experience offered.
Average and median prices were counted by collecting ticket prices when the ticket sales commenced. Events where a submission was required to be considered or “pay what you want” events were counted towards free events.
With the return of physical events different tiered tickets were offered (one-day, multiple entry, expo only, online premium, basic). When counting the averages only the lowest and highest prices for tickets offered were considered. As mentioned above, the metric will be focusing on standard and premium offerings next year and not combining them as a result.
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Why are ticket prices higher?
This is the “it is complicated” part. There are multiple factors affecting the final price of any event. We can talk about which items are the most expensive in one of the future blogs. The main ones are the inflation and energy crisis driving prices higher, influencing everything, from venue to food & drinks offered, production equipment, to additional services like compensation for speakers. The demand for a physical experience is another reason, organizers are seeing this as an opportunity to generate higher revenue.
Are the tickets going to be more expensive this year compared to last one? I do not have the full data set to compare yet, but the answer is “yes and no”. Some are keeping up with the same price structure for years without a change, some organizers will go higher compensating for inflation and losses from previous years. I wouldn’t bet on lower prices for tickets.
And to end this long post, let’s look at GDC which is around the corner as an example. The prices for 2023 edition are on average across all tiers 5% highe than in 2022 as shown on the picture above.
GDC on its own is expensive event to attend, when you count in the costs for travel and overpriced hotels in vicinity of Moscone, not to mentioning food and drinks.
Database update
During the January all 2022 events (291) were cross referenced and new editions scheduled to happen this year were added to the database. Currently there are 115 events + 16 deadlines tracking awards and showcases. This will be done periodically to keep the database up to date and possible to discover new events that I missed.
A little reminder, Game Conference Guide is daily updated, meaning any changes in the format, pricing or dates are added as they are announced.
In case of changes in dates or formats, these are highlighted with a label next to the name of the event.
If you have come across an event or been a regular attendee and is missing in the database, please drop me a message.
[Game Conference Guide is tracking games industry & game developers events, trade shows, festivals, conferences and events around the world.]
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Pavol Buday, curator @ GCG