Year in Review - State of the games industry events
Game Conference Guide Insights - January 2026
In this month’s issue:
Looking at 2025 through the lens of data collected throughout the year
More events, less time
Check out the amazing events planned for 2026!
Numbers can be deceiving. When I started preparing the annual Year in Review, it was clear that 2025 will beat 2024 in number of the events. We have seen a slight increase, but what struck me most is we are spending less time at events. And while the number of events went up by 1.7%, the time spent at events was shorter in total by 3.3%.
It was so surprising that I had to re-run the numbers twice. I see all kinds of data gathered throughout the year, so please continue reading. There are more interesting numbers below.
But before we continue a word from one of the coolest partners Game Conference Guide collaborated with:
PARTNER OF THE MONTH
Talking to Press at Your Next Event? Be Ready.
Events like GDC and PAX put you face-to-face with the press. That is exciting. It can also go sideways fast if you are not prepared. One offhand comment can become the quote everyone remembers.
The media team at UberStrategist created the Talking to the Press Media Guide and Media Connect Checklist to help developers, publishers, and anyone suddenly told to “Go talk to IGN” walk into interviews with confidence.
The guide acts as a practical cheat sheet for demos, pitches, and interviews. It covers:
How to craft a clear and compelling pitch that gets attention
How to navigate tricky questions with ease
How to guide the conversation to keep your game in the spotlight
Pair it with the Media Connect Checklist to get prepared before interviews and follow up effectively after.
If you never want to walk away from an interview thinking, “Did I really say that?”, this free guide and checklist is for you.
This is a two part article.
The first one you are reading now is covering the events in general and the state of the website tracking them. The second part scheduled for February is going to take a look at the ticket prices, conference passes, their tiers and comparing them with previous years. Make sure you are subscribed, so you won’t miss the next issue.
Will we see numbers going up? Of course we will.
Game Conference Guide tracked the highest number of events in 2025 since its launch, 343 to be exact (an increase by 1.7% from 337 in 2024).
Now this number needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.
The increase is a little higher, as all the showcases have been moved into their dedicated space in 2025, while in 2024 some of them were tracked among events. Adjusted increase without the showcases would hit almost 6%.
Number of showcases (= broadcasts during which new games are being announced) has seen an increase by 29% from 2024, from 104 to 134 in 2025. New formats have been introduced, while selected influencers were laser focusing on niches (small indies and genre specific games).
New trends on the horizon
Leadership, leadership and leadership summits. It looks like these types of events are popping up everywhere. On islands, with luxurious treatment, invite-only getaways shrouded with a veil of exclusivity that feels like a vacation.
These summits are targeting usually 100 - 150 attendees, they are more manageable, bringing higher revenue to organizers, while the pressure shifts from managing the crowd to delivering on quality for a more pickier audience. And the target audience will likely agree to attend a smaller event without the noise of a larger conference, especially if they know likeminded people will show up to discuss current challenges.
There is a room for more carefully positioned leadership summits, or at least special programmes focusing on the studio directors, leaders of the companies and CEOs. There can only be a certain number of them though, otherwise they will become just another event on the calendar. We might see more of them in 2026.Local events are on the rise. They are stronger than before and more initiatives are popping up. Some of them are being tracked for the first time, despite their longer history. It is always great to hear about these initiatives driven by passion and the community. And the industry is responding, attending them and going off the beaten path to scout for new games, new leads and meeting new companies.
Despite the turbulent times in the wide game industry and whatever is happening in the tech world, the events were very stable. There weren’t that many surprises. Among the highlights is definitely the rebranding of GDC to a Festival of Gaming which has raised some eyebrows, including mine when reading the interviews with the new director. In a few weeks we will see how the new format suits the attendees and how big of an impact it will have on attendance in general.
It was sad to see some of the events not returning in 2025 like Valencia Summit in Spain, WASD, Insomnia and Develop North in UK, Horizon(s) in France, Hamburg Games Conference in Germany, Promised Land in Poland, Tokyo Sandbox in Japan, DevGamm in Lithuania, Gamelab in Spain, LatinX Festival or Games First (SuperCell conference) in Finland. The last one will return in 2026.
On top, many events organized with the help of local government or private groups addressing the current issues of the industry never made it past its first edition.
EVENT SPOTLIGHT
Gamesforum is where 20,000+ mobile games industry decision-makers meet each year. 2026 will see the return of Gamesforum Barcelona on 10–11 February. Connect with over 600 attendees, 140+ Publishers/Studios from across the globe. Expect two days of growth, innovation and actionable insights.
“One of the best events I have ever attended. Perfect ratio of industry professionals and vendors.” - Michal Prokop Grno, Head of Marketing, Pixel Federation
Use code GamesConf20 for 20% off your ticket.
gamescom dev leadership summit returns to Lisbon, February 24-26, 2026
Unlike traditional conferences, this summit is designed to foster confidential, high-level exchange, allowing senior leaders from companies like Guerrilla, Massive Entertainment, IO Interactive, Quantic Dream, Techland and many more to speak candidly and collaborate with peers on shared challenges.
Find out more and join the leadership summit
Games Conference Guide in numbers
The website grew in number of visitors and subscribers, which is amazing. The community grows each month, and I must thank each and every one of you who are visiting, and especially those who are sharing the website with their peers, colleagues and friends.
The Game Conference Guide turned 5 this year, which was at the beginning of the project an impossible target to have. I managed to finally finish the new design, and squash a lot of bugs that were popping up along the way. The website is running on a much more stable and faster backbone, it loads faster and it has more content on it.
The Partner of the Month programme was gaining a lot of traction as well. Last year the website was powered by these 7 amazing partners namely: Amber, devcom, DevGamm, GameDays, Pocket Gamer, Super Scale, UberStrategist and XP Summit. You are all awesome!
2026 is bringing a small change in the form of event featuring. If you are an event organizer and would love to cut the noise and turn the spotlight on your event, feel free to reach out.
Special shout-out goes to Jeanette, Kate, Chris, Takaaki, Masatoshi, Jason, Robin, Erik, Etienne, Justin, Tobias & Jay. These amazing humans are supporting the website each month, for which I am beyond thankful.
If you feel you would like to buy me a coffee, turn your free subscription to paid directly here in Substack, or you can support the website on Patreon.
Game Conference Guide in a nutshell:
Total number of events in 2025: 343 (increase by 1.7% from 337)
88% of all of them were physical, compared to 89% in 2024. Virtual events decreased by almost 45% from 38 in 2024 to just 21 of them in 2025.
Only 2,6% (9 out of 343) were cancelled or postponed compared to 2,7% (9 out of 337 in 2024).
The biggest number of events originated from the EU (51%) followed by North America (26%).
The United States hosted 74 events (not counting broadcasts / press conferences), in Europe it was the UK with 37 events (+5 from last year), followed by Germany (18), Sweden (15) and Spain (12).
You are accessing the website mostly on desktop 65% (last year it was 56%), mobile saw a decrease from 44% to 35%. What was surprising, is that you are accessing the website on Smart TVs as well. Who are you, you legends?
Longest running events in 2025 were: London Games Festival (12 days), New Zealand Festival (10 days) and Melbourne Games Week (9 days).
The busiest day of 2025 was not just one, but two, 9th of October and 7th of November, each of them with 9 events happening simultaneously. In 2024 it was 14th November with 13 events (In 2023, 12th & 13th of October with 9 events).
Events are getting shorter, while there was overall increase in the amount of them during the year, average duration dipped from 2.69 days from last year to 2.53 days in 2025, while median duration stayed the same since 2023 - 2 days.
If you would have decided to attend every single event in 2025 (except those that were cancelled) it would take you: 602 working days and 251 weekend days. Compared to 637 working days and 245 weekends in 2024.
In total you would be conferencing nonstop for 2 years and 4 months, 853 days to be exact (decrease by 3.3 % from 2024 with 882 days).
During the 2025, Game Conference Guide has seen:
Most of the website visitors were coming from:
United States (-)*
United Kingdom (-)
China (4)
Canada (3)
Germany (6)
Followed by Poland, France, Spain, Brazil and India closing the top 10.
*The number in the brackets is the position from last year.
Most readers of the newsletter are coming from:
United States
United Kingdom
Canada
Germany
France
❄️Which showcases to watch in January 2026
January 20 @ 10AM PT / 1PM ET / 7PM CET
January 22 @ 10AM PT / 1PM ET / 7PM CET
January 29 @ 10AM PT / 1PM ET / 7PM CET
Get all details, dates, times & direct links to broadcasts here.
⏰Upcoming Deadlines on the horizon
🏆MIX - Spring Game Showcase
Deadline: January 23, On-site showcase + broadcast, entry: $600 (After acceptance)🎮Future Game Show: Spring Showcase
Deadline: January 23, showcase broadcast, entry: Free
🏆A MAZE Awards
Deadline: February 1, Awards, entry: 50€🏆Games For Change Festival - Awards
Deadline: February 1, Awards, entry: $75
Get all deadlines here.
And that is it for the Year in Review.
Hope you enjoyed reading it.
Now, you might be asking, what 2026 will look like?
I do not expect any major changes in the current line-up. There are already almost 150 events announced, the majority are returning back from 2025 and it looks like you will be able to attend way more events your calendar allows you to.
So, prepare to be paralyzed by choice.
[Game Conference Guide is helping you find your next games industry event.]
Thank you for reading and supporting Game Conference Guide. Consider sharing it with your peers, colleagues, and community.
Pavol Buday, curator @ GCG