UK Games Expo Attracts 42,000 Attendees Making It World's 3rd Largest Tabletop Convention

This year's UK Games Expo in Birmingham attracted more than 42,000 unique attendees this year, which represents a 7% increase over 2024. This makes it the third largest tabletop gaming convention in the world, following Essen Spiel and Gen Con.

Essen Spiel remains the largest tabletop convention in the world, while Gen Con and UKGE are the largest in North America and the UK respectively.

The show featured over 780 exhibitors, although some publishers, such as Arcane Wonders, pulled out citing tariff issues.

UKGE started in 2007 with about 900 attendees. In 2023 it attracted 32,000 attendees, with 39,000 in 2024. While it is primarily a boardgaming convention, it has a sizeable TTRPG contingent, with stands from Modiphius, Monte Cook Games, Cubicle 7, and many more (including us at EN Publishing!)

This year the show was in a different hall at the massive Birmingham NEC convention center, with a major car show and a Kylie Minogue concert on at the same time.

ConventionAttendance
Essen Spiel204,000 (2024)*
Gen Con71,000 (2024)
UK Games Expo42,000 (2025)
PAX Unplugged30,000 (approx)**
Origins Game Fair17,706 (2024)

*It's not clear whether Essen reports uniques or turnstile figures.
**PAX does not provide figures, but estimates are available.

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EN Publishing's stand just before the show doors opened!
 

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I’m not surprised by these figures - the Expo trade halls felt huge this year. Great to see so many RPG companies with a big presence too.

I was very pleased to be part of the team that brought D&D Adventures League back to Expo this year for the first time since 2019 and also got to play in some brilliant games. More on my blog here.

Cheers

Richard
 

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