GDC Festival of Gaming 2026 attendance drops 30% to 20,000 visitors

This year’s GDC Festival of Gaming saw a 30% decline in visitors, resulting in a total of 20,000 attendees.

It marks the lowest turnout since 2011, when 19,000 people gathered at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.

When GDC returned as a hybrid event in 2022 following the COVID pandemic, there were 17,000 visitors overall (including the virtual component), while in-person participation was closer to 12,000.

Attendance rose to 28,000 in 2023 and broke records in 2024, reaching over 30,000. That number was maintained last year.

The decrease in visitor numbers has been attributed to complaints about attendance costs and concerns among international visitors about US immigration crackdowns.

Sources told GamesIndustry.biz that some companies that did not attend or sent fewer staff had shifted their budgets to other events such as Develop Brighton and Tokyo Game Show.

This year’s conference, the first edition of the rebranded GDC Festival of Gaming, hosted more than 700 sessions from 1,100 speakers, alongside over 300 exhibitors.

“This was the first year of a bold new concept for GDC,” said GDC president Nina Brown. “We are thrilled that 20,000 unique attendees representing our global community showed up from over 85 countries and trusted us with this evolution.”

“The energy across the Festival, from packed sessions to a vibrant show floor and thousands of meetings happening throughout the week, demonstrates how powerful it is when our industry comes together to learn from one another, build partnerships and shape what comes next for games.”

Brown continued: “This transformation was built directly from community feedback, and we’re excited to continue listening, learning, and evolving the GDC Festival of Gaming as we look ahead to 2027.”

GDC Festival of Gaming will return next year, taking place from March 1 to March 5 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.