It may not seem like it, but last week was Gamescom 2025. In fact, a week ago today was when Opening Night Live happened in Cologne, Germany, kicking off the four-day event. While Gamescom has been around for a while, in recent years, it’s taken on a whole new meaning and purpose with the fall of E3. Many see this as one of the true key game event shows to go to, and the numbers back that up. As noted by VGC, Gamescom released its numbers and stats for the 2025 show, and it’s very impressive seeing how well it did compared to the previous year.
First and foremost, the show drew 357,000 visitors, which is an increase of over 20,000 from the previous year. Just as important is that those people came from over 120 countries! That highlights how the show truly is a global event worthy of going to. Going back to the Opening Night Live event, that saw the biggest increase of the bunch, as the showcase had 72 million views in its first four days. If you’re curious, that’s up 80% over the 2024 show!
When you add that to the record number of space given to exhibitors, the even larger number of people exhibiting at the show, and certain other records, you can see why this is such a big deal. German Games Industry Association managing director Felix Falk was more than happy to talk about this success:
“Gamescom 2025 sets new standards. Bigger, more diverse and more international than ever before, the most important festival of gaming culture underscores the positive force that games, the industry and the global community represent.”
Gerald Böse owns the venue that the show was at and said:
“With record figures once again in nearly every category, the enormous variety of experiences and global participation, gamescom is the most important event for the global gaming community.”
So, the question is, WHY did this show do so much better than last year’s? First, it might have been because of content, including the Nintendo Switch 2 being there with all-new demos and people being able to get their hands on it for the first time. There were also games like Hollow Knight Silksong, which were going to be playable for the first time as well.
As for Opening Night Live, people are starting to realize that it’s a “variant” of The Game Awards or Summer Game Fest, and thus, they should probably watch it, even if it isn’t really worth it by the end.
The key thing to watch is whether the 2026 show builds upon these numbers even further.
