‘It is not our aim to grow, grow, grow:’ Gamescom 2025 touts record exhibitors but organizers says quality is better than quantity

Gamescom 2025 is less than a week away and the annual industry showcase has broken a deluge of records before a single person has stepped foot inside the cavernous halls of the Koelnmesse. 

The five-day event, which brands itself as Europe’s leading trade fair for digital games culture, will host over 1,500 exhibitors from 72 countries in 2025. It’s a notable first that organizers say will comprise the most diverse lineup in Gamescom history. 

To accommodate burgeoning exhibitor interest, Gamescom 2025 is expanding its footprint to a record 233,000 square meters. Record registration numbers mean it’s a smart move, with last year’s event attracting 335,000 visitors. 

Opening Night Live, the digital and in-person show that kicks off the event with a deluge of video game announcements, has also been moved to Hall 1 for the first time. The switch means 5,000 people will be able to attend in-person—although the showcase will also be streamed online for a global audience.

Felix Falk, managing director of game—the German games industry association that owns the Gamescom brand and co-organizes the event with Koelnmesse—described interest in the show as “immense,” but why has Gamescom flourished in the years following the pandemic when another major industry event that went by the name of E3 fell into ruin? 

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Speaking to Game Developer earlier this week, Falk suggested Gamescom weathered that storm and emerged stronger because organizers understood the importance of establishing a digital footprint even before COVID-19 left the world in stasis. 

Opening Night Live was part of that push to attract a global audience via the power of streaming, and Falk explained that almost 50 million people watched last year’s Geoff Keighly-fronted opening salvo. That’s a lot of eyes on the Gamescom brand. 

Falk said the pivot to a hybrid digital-meets-physical event that included online communities meant Gamescom was in “good shape” before the pandemic. But what about post-COVID? In a world where major publishers are by no means guaranteed to attend in-person events—largely because the likes of Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have all taken to saving their biggest announcements for their own digital directs—where is the value in meeting face-to-face?

Gamescom organizer says face-to-face events close the ’emotional distance’ between  developers and consumers

For both exhibitors and consumers, Falk suggested there is an “emotional” aspect to attending events in-person that is tough to replicate digitally.” 

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“Being on-site is a totally different experience and much deeper and much more worthy for the companies and the games, compared to the digital format,” he said. “You can see that if you head to the indie area, which is the biggest indie area we’ve ever had, and there you’ll normally find the developer stood next to the game. You can talk to them—and they love the feedback. Of course, you could do a survey online and get feedback that way, but it’s different from talking