The complete history of Gamescom and Gamescom Onl

When I grew up, E3 was one of the events on the calendar that I was most looking forward to. From Console reveal to star-studded conferences, the Electronic Entertainment Expo is a series of corporate meetings that feels in some way like an Oscar, Comic-Con and Glastonbury merger. The final Fantasy VII remake and the last Guardian were finally shown in the same meeting. At the time, U.S. President Reggie Fils-Aimé made his public debut; Keanu Reeves told a venue that was packed with Los Angeles auditoriums, and they were all breathtaking. However, the show itself ceased as all its incredible games and consoles revealed after 2020, with the last face-to-face E3 being held in 2019.

Fortunately, there is always another world-leading interactive entertainment for mourning gamers that connect fans and industry figures with presentations, change announcements and top-notch community events: Gamescom, Germany. Where E3 is a media-only event, Gamescom has been — and a lot of events have been a public celebration of games and gamers. The practice’s attitude to role-playing that inspires the world’s challenges is also as good as connecting journalists with publishers and industry insiders in the business world. E3 may have disappeared, but Gamescom is still here and has established itself as the largest and best gaming event in the world.

Gamescom has started hosting its own game announcements since 2019, with the annual Geoff Keighley hosting Gamescom Opening Night Live live on site to provide an exciting uninterrupted cavalry reveal. With Gamescom's annual August celebration, it's now the largest gaming event in the world – with the new Gamescom sister event now delighting gamers in Brazil and Singapore (Gamescom Asia is moving to Thailand for the next event) – it feels like the right time to celebrate the legacy of Gaming's most popular event. So without further ado, it's how Cologne's once modest convention changed the history of the game forever.

Gamescom Origins

Since 2009, Gamescom immediately attracted the attention of the largest publisher in the gaming industry, as well as 228,000 excited bettors. 450 exhibitors appeared in the first year, and the first Gamescom also saw Sony announce the PlayStation 3 Slim, Microsoft reveals the Fable 3 for the first time. Since then, Gamescom has only become more powerful, attracting more players, developers and publishers, and it's gone every year.

E-sports became the cornerstone of the Cologne Conference. In 2011, Gamescom hosted its first ever Dota 2 International Championship, with a huge success leading to massive Starcraft 2, League of Legends and Anti-Strike matches and held at Gamescom in the next few years. By 2017, Gamescom attracted more than 100,000 visitors, with 355,000 attending the event, while Gamescom's door was opened by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In addition to these publicly-facing presentations and revelations, Gamescom also hosts a sister developer-centric event, a European spin-off of the Legendary Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Gamescom Revelation

In 2018, Gamescom showed off more than 1,000 exhibitors at the event. NVIDIA made headlines when it revealed their Geforce RTX 20 series that year, with 370,000 players, developers, journalists and publishers all making pilgrimage in Cologne to watch the best games in the world. Thankfully, 2018 is also the last year, and only locals can share the fun. Ten years after Gamescom's first opening, in 2019, Gamescom launched its first live broadcast event in history – Gamescom Onl. Gamescom, under the auspices of the Game Awards’ Geoff Keighley, immediately consolidated its industry-formed display cabinet, an announcement on the new look of the Fifth Warrior, titles such as Call of Duty, Call of Death and Little Nightmares 2, and 1,500 people watching online and over 500,000 people watching online, a huge success, with over 500,000 people watching online.

With the pandemic’s rush to cancel events and global public gatherings, Gamescom has carried out the entire show online, with its 2020 edition offering a timeline filled with online developer interviews and a new look in the game along with a second Gamescom Opening Night Live. This is also the first time GamesCom has released content specifically for Gamescom Awesome Indies. The show offers recognition for hard-working, creative independent developers for some of the most unique games in the industry and provides a tempting trailer for gamers who enjoy independent scenes.

Gamescom Evolution

As the world reopens after the pandemic, so does Gamescom, the 2022 version offers gamers a savvy mix of online and in-person events. Since then, Gamescom has only become even more critical to the gaming industry – face-to-face game feedback, unique demonstrations of the world and the heart of dream-filled games that are revealed by dreams. Gamescom's cultural and political influence has been growing over the years, while Dr. Angela Merkel visited in 2017 in 2017, followed by German Minister Robert Habeck in 2023 and 2024. European gaming associations such as European and EGDF also regularly use Gamescom as a place to invite political leaders to the event, with Gamescom hosting more than 500 political guests in 2024.

However, it is not just a face-to-face event to bloom. In just five years, the live broadcast of Gamescom's opening ceremony will only become more and more powerful, becoming an important event in the game culture calendar. Gamescom Onl was selected as the place to reveal Borderlands 4, Dead Island 2, Dune Awakening and many others, and the 2024 version watched 44 million viewers across the globe.

Last year, Gamescom tripled its opening participant number, hosting 1,462 exhibitors and even more exhibitors and visitors in 2025. With the opening ceremony of the inaugural Gamescom Asia Asia X Thailand Game Show and Gamescom Latam, Gamescom's attention has attracted a lot of attention and it looks like Gamescom will continue to have a reputation for hosting the biggest and best events in video games.

have It's time to pick up the tickets for Gamescom 2025operates from August 20 to August 24. Even if you can't attend the event, you can watch Gamescom's opening night live live in all the games revealed on August 19.

But it will get better because starting in August, the Gamescom website will now become GamesCom, the content center that meets all your Gamescom needs. This includes Gamescom Awesome Indies Show Streaming and all partner content on August 21 – It's everything you need to satisfy your gaming news aspirations. go Gamescom.global To learn more about the great content options you can experience.