For a long time, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was considered the largest trade show in the video game industry in the United States; however, its barely 66,000 attendees gathered in 2019 discarded it from the first places of popularity in the field. In addition, at the end of the first quarter of this year, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which organizes and presents it, canceled the event in its in-person format for 2022, after having already canceled it in 2020 and held only virtually in 2021.

In this way, Gamescom is placed as the largest video game convention in terms of attendees, since its 2019 edition was attended by 373,000 people during four days, according to recent data from Statista.

It is followed by China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference, or ChinaJoy, which gathered 365,000 visitors that same year. China was the world’s largest video game market in 2020, with revenues of around $41 billion, most of which were generated by mobile and e-sports titles.

On the other side of the world, we can find a remarkable case, taking into account that most events of these magnitudes are registered in Europe and Asia; however, this occupies the third position and it is Brazil Games Show, which gathered 325,000 people in 2018, a surprising figure, taking into account, in addition, that the residents of that country spent less than 1 billion dollars on video games during that year.

Continuing on the list are the Eurasian classics; Taipei Game Show, which achieved an attendance of 320,000 people, Paris Games Week with 317,000 visitors, Tokyo Game Show with 262,000 tickets sold, G-Star Korea which gathered 244,000 fans and Igromir with 160,000 attendees.

It is worth noting that, the dominance of video game events has changed. For example, 2019 was the first year in which the Japanese multinational Sony, did not participate in E3, opting better to independently present its State of Play, while Electronic Arts canceled its EA Play live event for this year before E3 was canceled. As for Nintendo, its regular recorded exhibits have become more important than presences at video game conventions.

However, despite the changes and revolutions within the industry, it continues to steadily expand and grow. In 2021, this market reached a value of about $198.5 billion and it is estimated that by 2027 the figure will increase by about $141.6 million.