Paris Games Week 2026 : Over 160,000 Visitors

Paris Games Week 2026 ended its four-day run with more than 160,000 visitors, according to the organizers’ October 25 closing release. Held at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles from October 22 to 25, its 15th edition brought together 174 exhibitors and partners around the Playground Edition concept. The emphasis was practical: give visitors games to try, people to meet and reasons to explore beyond the biggest booths.

Organized by GL events Exhibitions and Rivaj Group alongside the Syndicat des Éditeurs de Logiciels de Loisirs (SELL), the show combined public entertainment with professional meetings. Its final attendance figure should be read as an organizer-reported total.

Playable games put discovery at the centre of the show

The closing report lists more than 100 playable games, including around 20 exclusives and previews. Its selection includes Rayman Legends Retold, Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3, Alien: Isolation 2, Professeur Layton et le Nouveau Monde à vapeur, multiplayer Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and Hela: of Mice & Magic.

The official exhibition catalogue also lists Rayman Legends Retold at Ubisoft, and Resident Evil Requiem and PRAGMATA at Capcom. Beyond the headlines, the programme combined independent creations, showmatches and encounters with developers. Hands-on demonstrations offer something a trailer cannot: a chance to judge how a game feels.

One revealing detail was the LAN Open Gaming by HyperX, equipped with 70 PCs. The organizers describe a space accommodating both VALORANT Project Blender competition and freely playable Fortnite Battle Royale, with activities run by FuturoLAN. That combination gave the communal PC setup a role beyond tournament spectacle: visitors could participate in the gaming culture being celebrated around them.

The Playground app turned the exhibition into a quest

The most distinctive innovation made the building itself part of the game. Through the official app, visitors followed ten stages, searched for QR codes and secret codes, and collected badges, with prizes including consoles and trips to Japan. The closing release reports more than 24,000 app downloads and more than 20,000 participants in the game.

The appeal was easy to understand: the next discovery could be a clue elsewhere in the exhibition rather than another queue at a familiar franchise. The resulting participation suggests that visitors engaged with this format, although the published figures do not measure its effect on individual exhibitors’ footfall or sales.

Back to OG brought Fortnite to the Dôme de Paris

On October 24, Back to OG extended the event into the Dôme de Paris. Led by Inès Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, the Fortnite evening brought together 60 personalities from gaming, online entertainment and French music. The announced format paired 30 celebrity duos, with a €100,000 prize pool linked to charitable and spectator beneficiaries.

According to the closing release, places were taken in less than an hour and 250,000 people watched online. The speed of reservations nevertheless supplies a telling anecdote about demand: a gaming evening could mobilize a crowd before the competition began, then reach viewers far beyond the venue through its broadcast.

Esports and family activities shared the spotlight

The main stage hosted the League of Legends EMEA Masters Summer 2026 final, VALORANT Project Blender and the BIGG SERIES final on Brawl Stars, according to the organizers. It also welcomed the Silver Geek Trophée des Seniors final and the cosplay competition final. Placing senior competitors within the wider stage programme made intergenerational participation a visible part of the event, alongside professional esports.

Elsewhere, MO5 represented retrogaming, Gala TCG brought trading cards into the mix, and the Entrez dans leur jeu family route involved Internet Sans Crainte / Tralalère. The Hors les Murs programme extended the event’s cultural reach outside the exhibition. Together, these activities offered several ways into gaming culture, whether visitors arrived with competitive ambitions, childhood memories or questions about their children’s play.

PGW Business records 415 professional visitors

Away from the public demonstrations, PGW Business by CMS ran on October 22 and 23. The closing report records 415 professional visitors, up 25% on 2025, more than 30 speakers, 14 hours of talks and conferences, and 450 B2B and networking meetings.

The official agenda addressed changing production and financing models through Market Reset, and the expansion of game intellectual property into entertainment through Beyond the Game. It also included mentoring and clinics. These subjects help explain why a busy consumer show matters to developers: public enthusiasm can create visibility, while professional conversations address the resources needed to make the next project. The reported meetings are opportunities, however, not evidence of completed investment deals.

In the closing statement, Nicolas Vignolles, delegate general of SELL, connected the crowd’s enthusiasm with an industry facing difficult conditions. Thomas Held, managing director of Rivaj Group, emphasized shared experiences across generations. Their comments frame the exhibition’s central tension: strong interest in playing games can coexist with uncertainty for the businesses producing them.

Paris Games Week announces its 2027 dates

The organizers have announced October 28–31, 2027 for the next edition. Damien Timperio, managing director of GL events Exhibitions, set out an ambition to offer more games and new discoveries while strengthening the show’s appeal to major industry players. That is a stated direction for 2027, rather than a confirmed exhibitor list or playable lineup.

You can discover our photos in our Flickr page

Event recap

Paris Games Week 2026 — Playground Edition
Where : Paris, Paris Expo Porte de Versailles
When : October 22–25, 2026.
What : The 15th edition, reporting more than 160,000 visitors, over 100 playable games and 174 exhibitors and partners.

Photos: Boris Colletier / Mulderville