Gamescom 2024 Ends Partly on a Record Hight and a Great Mood

335,000 visitors, including 32,000 trade visitors, 1462 exhibitors, 71 percent of whom came from abroad - gamescom 2024 closes with impressive figures, some of which are new records. More importantly, the industry left Cologne with renewed optimism and can look forward to a comeback in 2025.

In the end, there was no new overall attendance record. A total of 335,000 people from 120 countries came to gamescom in Cologne this year. That's 15,000 more than last year, but still almost 40,000 fewer than in the record year of 2019 (in German), before the coronavirus pandemic. But gamescom has changed a lot since then. Whereas before Covid-19 it was all about being there, gamescom is now a 360-degree event that is as firmly anchored in the digital world as it is in the trade fair grounds on the banks of the Rhine.

And the digital figures are particularly impressive. Here, gamescom has certainly set new records. By Saturday evening, the various videos had been viewed more than 310 million times. The Opening Night Live alone reached 40 million views. That's twice as many as last year. This is also a new record. The gamescom epix community adventure, which featured the new digital trading cards for the first time, reached 2.5 million page views by Saturday evening.

In the business aera, gamescom had 32,000 visitors this year. This is around 1,000 more visitors than last year. The organisers recorded the biggest increase in trade visitors from North America and Japan. They came to see what the 1,462 exhibiting companies from 64 countries had to offer. The proportion of international exhibitors was 71 percent. There were 48 national pavilions representing 37 countries. Incidentally, all these figures are higher than those from the record year 2019, when 31,200 trade visitors came to a total of 1,153 exhibitors.

Gerald Böse, Chairman of the Board of Koelnmesse: "gamescom has once again proven its appeal as the world's largest and most important event for the games industry. With a record number of digital visits and more visitors than last year, gamescom, Koelnmesse and the German Games Association are connecting people around the world in their shared passion and driving innovation and partnerships in the games industry like no other event.

"gamescom 2024 is a success across the board. Among other things, more countries than ever before presented themselves with their own country pavilions and promoted themselves as attractive games locations," says Felix Falk Managing Director of game – The German Games Industry Association and co-organizer of gamescom. "From the point of view of the German games industry, the commitment to the rapid implementation of tax breaks for games companies, which came from both the Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck and several federal states, including the Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia Hendrik Wüst, therefore stands out in particular. With a clever implementation of tax breaks for games companies, as other countries have been using successfully for years, the Gordian knot in games funding in Germany could finally be cut and reliable and internationally comparable framework conditions could finally become a reality. This would benefit everyone - the games companies and employees, Germany as a digital and business location and last but not least the German tax authorities."

Given the excellent figures, the industry, which has been hit by job cuts over the past two years, leaves Cologne optimistic. After all, Cologne has once again shown the impact that gaming has on people's lives. At the same time, the creativity of the games industry was unmissable. And that doesn't just apply to gamescom. The other side events also closed with excellent results.

Devcom achieved a record result with over 5,000 visitors, as did the gamescom congress, which focussed on gaming in the context of social issues.

gamescom 2025 will take place from 20 to 24 August. It will open on 19 August 2025 with the gamescom Opening Night Live. devcom developer conference 2025 will take place from 17 to 18 August.