Back from Cologne after another packed gamescom, we look back at gamescom 2026, the continued international growth of the event and a week spent meeting people from across the global games industry
Another gamescom is in the books. For Games Branding, Cologne has been part of the calendar for many years. But gamescom 2026 once again demonstrated just how international the games industry has become.
Across a very busy few days, we met game developers, publishers, gaming hardware companies, creators, media and industry partners from around the world, reconnecting with familiar faces while starting plenty of new conversations.
The scale of gamescom continues to grow. gamescom 2026 welcomed 368,000 visitors from 131 countries, including more than 36,000 trade visitors.
A record 1,743 companies from 66 countries exhibited at the show, with international companies accounting for 72% of exhibitors.
Those are enormous numbers. But walking the halls in Cologne, the more interesting story wasn’t simply how big gamescom has become. It was how global the business of games now is.
A global games industry under one roof
Few events bring together so many different parts of the international games
industry in one place.
Major publishers share the show floor with independent developers, emerging
studios, hardware and technology companies, creators, media and businesses
from markets across Europe, Asia, North America and beyond.
For a few days in Cologne, an industry normally spread across continents and
time zones suddenly feels remarkably close together.
And for an industry that spends much of the year communicating through
screens, gamescom remains an important reminder of the value of meeting
face-to-face.Sometimes a 20-minute conversation in Cologne can accomplish
more than months of emails.
A challenging industry, but not one standing still
It would be difficult to talk about the state of the games industry in 2026 without
acknowledging that the sector has been through a challenging period.
Budgets are under pressure, competition is intense and standing out in an
increasingly crowded global market remains a challenge for companies of
every size.
But Cologne didn’t feel like an industry retreating. Quite the opposite.
Throughout the week, the halls were filled with new games, new technology, new companies and people arriving from around the world to meet, reconnect and look towards what comes next.
The atmosphere reminded us that even during periods of change, this remains an extraordinarily creative and ambitious global industry.
The international side of gamescom
One of the things we have always enjoyed about gamescom is its international
character.
A single day can take you through conversations with people from completely
different parts of the world, different areas of the industry and companies at
very different stages of their journey.
