GamesCom largest games event in the world

GamesCom in Cologne, Germany, was the most popular gaming event in the world.

GamesCom 2009 has now finished and it attracted 248,000 visitors between 19th - 23rd August who wanted to try out the games provided by 458 exhibiting companies from 31 countries.

The huge number of visitors makes GamesCom the largest games fair in the world, ahead of E3 2005's record of 70,000 and the Tokyo Games Show's 200,000.

"The GamesCom premiere ran splendidly. We are very happy with the enthusiastic response of both exhibitors and visitors. This has established gamescom as a leading trade fair straight away," said Oliver P. Kuhrt, managing director of Koelnmesse GmbH (the event's organiser).

"We are very proud of the premiere of gamescom. It fulfilled all our objectives right away and is the largest game trade fair in the world," Olaf Wolters, managing director of the BIU commented. "Computer and video games are so attractive that our industry is breaking all records despite the economic crisis."

GamesCom also supported 17,000 trade visitors and 4,000 media representitives. A survey taken at the event revealed that 92 per cent of trade visitors believed that GamesCom was a success.

"GamesCom has set the trend worldwide and impressively underscored the power of Cologne as a media and communications location in the interplay between the trade fair, the city and the participating industries," reported Gerald Böse, Chief Executive Officer of Koelnmesse GmbH.

"This success is an important impetus for the future of Cologne media and entertainment fairs. It motivates us to expand even further on our trade fair offering for the digital creative economy."

Despite the huge numbers, GamesCom was unable to improve upon the video game cosplay world record achieved at London's MCM Expo. GamesCom was only able to attract 311 video game cosplayers, coming nowhere near the MCM Expo's 376 tally recorded on May 23rd 2009.

Bryan Cooney of MCM Expo boasted: "We are expecting a huge increase in gamers at October's MCM Expo and are planning to push the record even higher, we have cosplayers from around the world attending and they are eager to raise the record even higher."

GamesCom 2010 will take place in Cologne from 18th - 22nd August.