gamescom asia x Thailand Game Show 2026 closed at Bangkok’s Queen Sirikit National Convention Center (QSNCC) on 1 November, after four days that drew 219,546 attendees from 113 countries, according to the organisers’ post-show release. For anyone in Singapore who’s making games, or hoping to, the most interesting moment was a role swap. In a session called the Reverse Pitch, publishers got up on stage and told developers what they want to fund next.
Pitching usually runs the other way, with small teams squeezing a dream project into a few slides and hoping someone with a budget bites. Seeing that flipped, even for one session, says a lot about who holds the leverage in Southeast Asia right now. The rest of the numbers back it up.
The Publishers Pitched This Time
gamescom asia names PlaySide, Focus Entertainment, Fireshine Games and Team17 as the publishers who “turned the tables” on the business track. They pitched directly to developers on what they want to back next. For a small studio, that’s gold. Instead of guessing whether a publisher would go for your cosy sim or your punishing roguelike, you hear their wishlist first and approach the ones who are already looking for something like yours.
Developers kept their own spotlight too. The Pitch Competition put 13 finalists on stage. MiMu Studio’s Little Old One and the Witch won Best Visual, NOTAI Games’ Slop Capital took Best Game Design, and Hypercent Inc.’s Backroom Cleaners picked up the Most Anticipated Game award. That last one is the prize to watch, because the audience voted for it, and an audience is the market a publisher is betting on.
6,923 Business Visitors, Up 24%
The business area ran on 29 and 30 October and drew 6,923 business visitors from 78 countries, compared with 5,590 from 81 countries in 2025. That works out to a 23.85% jump, which the organisers round up to 24%, and 51% of those visitors came from outside Thailand. The country count dipped by three even as the headcount climbed, so the growth came from more people per market rather than more markets.
Matchmaking grew as well. The Invest Circle and VIP XPerience, sponsored by Xsolla, connected 509 developers, publishers and investors, up from 418 the year before. On the exhibitor side, 335 exhibitors and pavilions from a record 29 countries took part, up from 294, and 64% of them came from outside Thailand.
Those 20 pavilions, government agencies and industry delegations came from places including Austria, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Spain, Thailand and the United States. Mathias Kuepper, Managing Director and Regional President, APAC, at co-organiser Koelnmesse, said that exhibitors “came to Bangkok to sign deals, not only to show games,” adding that Southeast Asia “is no longer a market to watch. It is a market to be in.”
One caveat the organisers flag themselves: these figures were preliminary as at 7.30pm on 1 November 2026, and final numbers could still change.
DOOM’s Co-Creator Led the Talks
John Romero, co-creator of DOOM, headlined a conference of 81 speakers from 27 countries across four stages. Getting a name like that is a draw, but the smaller sessions are where a young developer picks up the practical stuff. That covers the money, the markets and the mistakes.
One slide from the business area put it plainly. Yulia Shavshuk’s talk carried the title “How (not) to Lose Millions on the 3.6B USD Market with 6% CAGR”, with CAGR meaning compound annual growth rate, the yearly growth figure investors love to quote.
Elsewhere, a speaker presented in front of a screen that mentioned the end of Telltale Games, the studio behind story-driven adventures. Few cautionary tales hit harder for anyone planning to run a studio of their own.
That mix of growth charts and post-mortems is the useful part of a trade show. It’s the material you’d pay a mentor to sit you down for, delivered across four stages in one building.
The Students Coming for Your Spot
The Asia Game Talent Showcase, run by the Thai Game Association, put 20 student-made games from across Asia in front of the industry. RE//SLASH won Rising Star Student, God Lies Above took Talent of the Year, and Kapit Buhay claimed Best Narrative. Fribbles, Swingscape, Toy’s Dream and Candela won Best Game Design, Best Technology, Best Visual Art and Best Audio respectively. If you’re still in school, Rising Star Student is the title to aim for, and God Lies Above is the one to keep an eye on, because Talent of the Year is the top prize on the list.
Thailand’s own developers turned up in force. Dr Supakorn Siddhichai, Acting President and CEO of the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (depa), said depa and the Thai Game Association brought over 90 Thai games to the Thai Playvilion, reaching players and partners in both the business and entertainment areas.
Regional talent reaching a global audience isn’t new, as our look at five Southeast Asia-developed games coming to Xbox showed. What’s different now is the size of the room those studios get to pitch in.
Meanwhile, on the Show Floor
The entertainment area opened from 30 October to 1 November, with fans playing 470 titles from indies and big names such as CAPCOM, SEGA, Ubisoft and The Pokémon Company. Unreleased big-budget games on the floor included Final Fantasy VII Revelation, Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance and Persona 4 Revival.
At the Thailand Game Awards, the result that should cheer indie developers most is Meccha Chameleon by Lemorion_1224, which won both Best Indie Game and Best Multiplayer Game, holding its own on a list full of major studios.
The cosplay contest awarded THB 300,000 (Thai baht) in prizes, with an Avatar Kyoshi taking the top Best All-Star prize of THB 100,000. Livestreams and digital content drew close to 34 million views across platforms, so the show reached far beyond Bangkok.
When we first covered it, it was a newcomer. Today it’s merged with Thailand Game Show, which Show No Limit founded in 2007, and the combined event runs alongside gamescom in Cologne and gamescom latam in São Paulo.
🗓️ Date: 29 October to 1 November 2026
📍 Location: Queen Sirikit National Convention Center (QSNCC), Bangkok, Thailand
💼 Business area (held): 29 to 30 October 2026
🎮 Entertainment area (held): 30 October to 1 November 2026
👥 Attendance: 219,546 attendees from 113 countries (preliminary figures)
🕹️ On show: 582 titles, 347 of them from indie developers
🔁 Next edition: 21 to 24 October 2027, Bangkok
If you’re building a game, the takeaway is simple: the publishers came to Bangkok shopping, and they said so out loud. The show returns to Bangkok from 21 to 24 October 2027, so mark the dates now and follow gamescom asia x Thailand Game Show on its official website and social channels for announcements on passes, pitch slots and the next Asia Game Talent Showcase. Maybe next year your project is the one they pitch for!
Photos and Visuals courtesy of gamescom asia x Thailand Game Show.
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