Dates Set for Expanded London Games Festival in 2026

The London Games Festival 2026 will be returning from 13 to 19 April 2026, and it's set to be the biggest edition yet. The Games Finance Market expands with new strands, while New Game Plus levels up with a move to a larger venue.

London Games Festival will run for its eleventh edition in 2026, taking place from Monday 13 April to Sunday 19 April.  The event is supported by the Mayor of London and delivered by Games London, an initiative from Film London. From 2026 the event will also welcome extended support from the UK Government, as announced earlier in the year as part of the Modern Industrial Strategy.

Games London: "This additional funding will allow the festival to increase the opportunities at its key events, and create an additional £30m worth of investment back into the games industry every year. London is already the biggest games cluster in Europe, home to over hundreds of games businesses, and a workforce over 13,000. Since it started in 2016, Games London has helped facilitate £110m worth of completed deals and software sales for games studios, which has led to the creation of 900 jobs."

The festival's central B2B event, the Games Finance Market (Tuesday 14 and Wednesday 15 April), will maintain its core offering of hundreds of curated studio-to-investor pitch meetings, while also introducing new strands focusing on co-development and self-published games.

New Game Plus (Thursday 16 and Friday 17 April), the new consumer expo delivered by London Games Festival, will move to a new venue - the Exhibition Centre in White City - doubling its exhibition space to house a wider selection of games and provide access for thousands more attendees.

Justine Simons OBE, Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries, said: "It's great news that the London Games Festival will return bigger and better than ever before next year. For over a decade it has grown from strength to strength, successfully drawing crowds from all over the world to visit and do business in London. Its expansion and move to a bigger venue, shows its significance and confirms London’s position as a world leading gaming capital, as we continue to build a better London for everyone."

Ian Murray, Creative Industries Minister said: "Video games are a thriving part of our creative industries, which the Government is backing by increasing investment in these sectors from £17 billion to £31 billion by 2035 as part of the Creative Industries Sector Plan. The London Games Festival is a fantastic celebration of the talent that the UK’s gaming industry has, from cutting edge visual designers, innovative developers and more."

Adrian Wootton OBE, CEO of Film London and the British Film Commission added: "London Games Festival 2026 represents a new chapter for this city-wide celebration of games as the event’s core programmes expand further, thanks to renewed support from the Mayor of London and now additional new funding from UK Government. Games London’s efforts to support the capital’s vibrant ecosystem of games creatives and share that success with the rest of the UK continues to pay off, as shown by the festival’s growth in visitor numbers from beyond London in 2025 - a trend we expect to see continue next year."

Applications are now open for industry to submit games and express interest (application links). Other events are returning to the schedule, including a dedicated VIP networking day for UK and international games professionals and visiting delegations to open the festival, as well as the return of Screen Play. This one-day conference looks at the connections between the screen industries of games, film, and TV, and will take place on Wednesday, 15 April at BFI Southbank. The BAFTA Games Awards have also recently been scheduled for Friday 17 April, and nominations are now open.

London Games Festival celebrated its 10th anniversary this April. A total of 102,000 people visited the 26 different LGF 2025 events, including 5,000 industry visitors representing 31 countries.