2026 was UK Games Expo's biggest year ever

UK Games Expo took place this past weekend, and the convention reported record attendance figures of 51,196 unique attendees (up from 42,000 in 2025), holding on to its position as the 3rd largest tabletop gaming convention in the world. Vendors on the floor reported record sales figures, and the event itself has now expanded to cover multiple event halls with over 800 exhibitors.

Event	Unique Attendees	Exhibitors
Essen Spiel 2025	Unknown	948
Gen Con 2025	72,000	575
UK Games Expo 2026	51,196	800+
Play Festival del Gioco 2026	35,000 (approx)	200+
Pax Unplugged 2025	30,000 (est)	300+
Origins Game Fair 2025	19,171	410

By comparison, Gen Con 2025 boasted almost 72,000 attendees, but fewer exhibitors, while Origins Game Fair pulled in 19,171. Essen Spiel, in Germany, published 220,000 visitors in 2025, but only reports turnstile figures, not unique attendees (i.e. if a visitor enters and leaves more than once, they get counted multiple times--this is the figure that UKGE calls 'total attendees'). The top 6 list also includes Pax Unplugged (30,000+ estimated attendees) and Italy's Play Bologna which boasted 35,000 unique attendees this year. There are, of course, other large conventions which cover the broader topic of pop culture, including Comic Con, DragonCon, and so on, rather than being tabletop gaming specific.

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[Nikosandros]

Origins Game Fair pulled in 19,171. Essen Spiel, in Germany, published 220,000 visitors in 2025, but only reports turnstile figures, not unique attendees (i.e. if a visitor enters and leaves more than once, they get counted multiple times--this is the figure that UKGE calls 'total attendees'). The top 5 list also includes Pax Unplugged (30,000+ estimated attendees).

Play 2026 in Bologna had about 35,000 unique visitors, which was also a record for them.

Play 2026: un’edizione da record in costante crescita | Play Festival del Gioco

Per il Festival del Gioco una crescita di pubblico, cultura e impegno civile. La 17ª edizione di Play si trasforma in un manifesto di inclusività; grandissima soddisfazione di editori e associazioni, tutti i padiglioni sold out.

www.play-festival.it

 

[Morrus]

Play 2026 in Bologna had about 35,000 unique visitors, which was also a record for them.

Play 2026: un’edizione da record in costante crescita | Play Festival del Gioco

Per il Festival del Gioco una crescita di pubblico, cultura e impegno civile. La 17ª edizione di Play si trasforma in un manifesto di inclusività; grandissima soddisfazione di editori e associazioni, tutti i padiglioni sold out.

www.play-festival.it

Thanks! I'll add that in!

 

[Sossij]

That's a lot of exhibitors. I hope everything went well for you guys.

 

[ngenius]

Out of curiosity, is the NEC floorspace bigger than that of GenCon?
Just curious how this year's UKGE could successfully host 87,000 people when GenCon last year hosted 75,000? Plus, the population of the USA is much higher and most of the publishers are American, so it is truly shocking that UKGE is able to play catchup so well chasing GenCon.

 

[Morrus]

Out of curiosity, is the NEC floorspace bigger than that of GenCon?

Haven’t the foggiest!

 

[Bagpuss]

Out of curiosity, is the NEC floorspace bigger than that of GenCon?
Just curious how this year's UKGE could successfully host 87,000 people when GenCon last year hosted 75,000? Plus, the population of the USA is much higher and most of the publishers are American, so it is truly shocking that UKGE is able to play catchup so well chasing GenCon.

Venue

You can get a rough idea here.

Hall 1 - 14,000 sqm
Hall 2 - 25,000 sqm
Hall 3&3a - 18,000 sqm
Hall 4 - 12,000 sqm approx
Hall 5 - ??? but this was just ticketing and bring and buy.

All the RPG gaming happens over at the Hilton Hotel, which also has a bar and restaurant area.

There is also a Viking village outside on a grassy area.

Talking about outside, the weather was lovely and there is lots of green space outside the venue, I noticed lots of groups of people outside taking breaks with their purchases, and eating and drinking, none of that floor space will be taken into account.

 

[Bagpuss]

Gencon Indy claims 566K sq ft, an additional 152K from Lucas Oil stadium. So lets say 718k sq ft. 10K of that is used for a life size dungeon.

So that works out at about 66K sq m. compared to just Halls 1 to 4 = 69k sq m.

 

[Bagpuss]

Indy Convention Center

Birmingham NEC

You can see they are almost exactly the same width. I will say the NEC has lots more room to expand if they need to as there is a larger convention space to the east making up Halls 6 to 20.

 

[Bagpuss]

What interests me is Games Expo, fills all this with no official WotC presense at all, no Magic the Gathering other than a few vendors selling cards, no D&D other than a few games GMs offer to run, even the vendors don't seem to have a significant number of D&D books.