First gamescom asia x Thailand Game Show Draws 206,159 Visitors to Bangkok
The Bangkok experiment worked. The first-ever gamescom asia x Thailand Game Show closed its doors after four days with 206,159 visitors and 294 exhibitors and country pavilions, smashing the previous attendance records of both gamescom asia and Thailand Game Show individually, and instantly establishing itself as Southeast Asia's largest gaming festival. Held October 16 to 19 under the theme "World of Gaming", the merged event delivered on essentially every promise made when the two shows joined forces back in February.
The merger math checks out
When gamescom asia left Singapore to combine with Thailand Game Show, the open question was whether the sum would exceed the parts: gamescom asia drew around 40,000 attendees in 2024, Thailand Game Show around 185,000. The answer is a resounding yes, over 206,000 visitors, plus a business area that attracted 5,590 professionals from 81 countries. Thailand's government leaned in hard, with multiple ministers attending, and the Commerce Minister reported over 1.22 billion Thai baht in business negotiations generated during the event, soft power and hard numbers in one package.
AAA premieres and a strong Thai debut for Capcom
The show floor lineup would not have looked out of place in Cologne. Xbox brought Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Ninja Gaiden 4 playable for the first time in Thailand, while Capcom showed up in force with Resident Evil Requiem, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Pragmata, and Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, and, in a first for Thailand, flew in its producers, headlined by Monster Hunter boss Ryozo Tsujimoto introducing the new Stories entry on the main stage.
Nintendo, PlayStation, Bandai Namco, SEGA, Ubisoft, Tencent, HoYoverse, The Pokémon Company, and hardware brands from AMD to Razer filled out the halls, and Nuverse used the show for a hands-on debut of BLEACH: Soul Resonance in Southeast Asia.
Indies, awards, and a Dead Space legend
The event also imported gamescom's indie DNA: the indie area made its Thailand debut with 62 showcased titles among more than 200 playable indie games across both areas, and the new Indie Wavemakers Awards honored three small teams. The Thailand Game Awards, meanwhile, saw Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sweep four categories, while Lost and Found Co. took the coveted Thai Game Award.
The most memorable stage moment belonged to Glen Schofield. The Dead Space and Callisto Protocol creator received the Lifetime Achievement Award and delivered a keynote on creativity and resilience, ten ways to find inspiration, with a plea for risk-taking and originality that reportedly landed hard with the young developer crowd in the business area's 71-speaker program.
Southeast Asia has its flagship event
Between the record attendance, the government backing, and a genuine AAA lineup, the first gamescom asia x Thailand Game Show did exactly what a launch edition needs to do: prove the concept. The event returns to Bangkok from October 29 to November 1, 2026, and after these numbers, expect it to be bigger.
