UK Games Expo “now fully on the world stage of ‘mega-cons'”

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Another year of surging growth has seen the British hobby gaming convention UK Games Expo overtake US giant Gen Con in trade hall size – putting it second only to Spiel Essen for trade hall floor space, co-organiser Richard Denning has told BoardGameWire.

More than 42,000 people attended this year’s UKGE at Birmingham NEC between May 30 and June 1, up almost 7% on last year, while the total gate attendance across the three days passed 72,000 – a 10% bump compared to 2024.

That unique attendance remains some way off the 71,000 uniques recorded by Gen Con last year, but the UK show has managed to just pip its storied US counterpart in the size of its trade halls after expanding out into a larger space for this year’s event, UKGE co-founder and director Richard Denning said.

He told BoardGameWire that 780 exhibitors took part in this year’s show, up from 685 last year, while the trade hall space was about 30% larger than in 2024.

Denning said, “It’s actually now I think the second largest trade hall after Essen Spiel – about 2,000 sq m more than Gen Con.

“Gen Con has vastly more event space of course, and we are not suggesting we are in any way bigger than them, but the trade hall element is maybe on a par or even a bit bigger. So my plan to bring a world class level trade hall to the UK has essentially been achieved.”

UK Games Expo has ballooned in size since the event first opening its doors in a Birmingham conference centre in 2007, attracting 900 excited gamers – a far cry from the 27,000 who attended Gen Con’s 40th anniversary show later that year.

Denning told BoardGameWire last year that even at that embryonic stage, he hoped the show could go some way to recreating the atmosphere of big name events such as Gen Con and Essen Spiel, albeit in a much-reduced form.

That dream has been fully realised in the two decades since, with the show reaching 25,000 attendees in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic shuttered major conventions for a year.

UKGE quickly recovered post-pandemic, growing to roughly 32,000 attendees in 2023, 39,000 in 2024 and over 42,000 this year, despite the current dark cloud of US tariffs forcing several publishers – including big names such as Arcane Wonders – to pull out of the 2025 show.

Denning said the number of exhibitors cancelling their booths due to tariff upheaval was “not as many as I feared”, adding: “Our hope is that over the next year or so that will calm down”.

Exhibitors on the show floor that spoke to BoardGameWire reported significant sales boosts compared to last year, and several praised the expanded aisles this year for making the show feel less crowded and enable visitors to better reach the booths.

Rob Trounce, marketing manager at Hachette Boardgames UK, said, “This was our biggest ever UKGE – both going into it and coming out of it.

“We effectively doubled the size of our booth this year, with almost 50 tables showcasing around 40 different games. From a sales perspective, we saw a 150% increase on last year, which, even accounting for our increased footprint, is a huge leap.

“A few things really drove that growth. First and foremost, we went into the show with Gwent, which topped the BGG preview list as the most anticipated title. We had eight Gwent games running non-stop all weekend, with a constant flow of players.

“It’s the first time we’ve had a genuine ‘pull’ title – we spoke to plenty of attendees who said they’d come to UKGE just to try it. While we didn’t track exact numbers, the footfall on our stand was clearly up.

“The second big shift for us was the performance of our children’s games. MicroMacro Kids was our top seller of the whole weekend, and Spy Guy Fantasy came in fifth. They joined stalwart hobby titles like Cyclades: Legendary Edition, Castle Combo, and Shackleton Base in our top five – which is a real change from previous years.”

“…while the changes to the hall layout took a bit of getting used to, the increased space and improved layout definitely worked in the show’s favour overall.”

Ares Games director of production Roberto Di Meglio said, “I confirm it was a great show, with a lot of energy.

“Our Sunday Wings of Glory event, the massive Battle of Birmingham, is now a ‘classic’ that many players look forward to.

“Aeterna was incredible – we sold out in four hours, it’s always hard to gauge the interest level properly – but all the games we presented at the stand were well received, with great sales for Balconia, Diluvium and Snails, and a lot of interest for our upcoming titles.

“Overall our sales were up 40% from last year. Organization was perfect, from an exhibitor’s perspective at least.”

Judson Cowan, the creator and owner of Deep Regrets publisher Tettix Games, told BoardGameWire, “The show was obviously a huge success for us – we booked solid for demos through the weekend by midday Friday, and we sold out of Deep Regrets inventory by midday Saturday (and [exhibiting retailers] Waterstones and Zatu sold out on Friday).

“Comparing to last year’s sales is a bit unfair because I was only selling Hideous Abomination, and Deep Regrets was cannibalising my sales – people just glossed right over HidAbom to get to the one that wasn’t for sale yet.

“But the year-on-year increase was like a proper 10x in terms of revenue for my business. The change was down to me having a game in high demand compared to one that marketed poorly last year.

“The volume of traffic coming by felt equivalent to last year, from the perspective of someone just letting the wave break over them. It’s hard to tell the difference in 20k and 30k people from a booth – it’s just a constant wave of people both years without a break.

“The one thing that happened this year that didn’t happen last year ​was people rushing to get to the stall as early as possible. Friday and Saturday we had a queue of at least 10 people by 9:01am and it stayed that way until about 10am, after which there was a constant rotation of customers. Nobody in my stall got to step away for the toilet without it heavily burdening the other two.”

Jackson Pope, the director of FlickFleet publisher and UK Games Expo regular Eurydice Games, said, “We had a great show with sales up almost 30% on last year, despite being in a worse location.

“At times we were absolutely rammed, though Sunday was definitely quieter. I think the wall-to-wall Facebook/Instagram ads have definitely helped with that!”

Dan Jolin, co-founder and editor of print board game magazine Senet, told BoardGameWire, “UK Games Expo is always a key event in Senet’s calendar – it’s our best opportunity to meet our community of readers, and to also welcome new readers to that community.

“…this was our fifth Expo (not counting the virtual one in 2020), and was certainly our biggest yet. I haven’t had a chance to fully crunch the numbers, but I feel confident enough to say that in terms of turnover it outperformed any previous year by a comfortable margin.

“I was impressed by the new layout: I liked the way it felt more coherent and continuous, without the bottleneck of the Hall 1 stairs, and the wider aisles were a fantastic move. Even when the crowds were at peak levels, it didn’t feel as hectic as it did in previous years.

“I was impressed by the international turnout, too. It was great to be just a few stands down from Saashi & Saashi, while Jun Sasaki from Oink Games came to visit us (and buy a Senet T-shirt), and it was good to see the likes of Leder Games and Wehrlegig Games present, too, which also reflects my appreciation of the healthy spread between independent and big-name publishers.

“In terms of criticisms, I have nothing significant to gripe about… indeed, this was the first year we didn’t have a single connectivity issue with our checkout equipment, so it seems there’s been some improvement there!”

Denning said, “The growth of the size of the event along with a number of new features – like Painting Competition, [prize draw] Pile ‘o’ Games, a major epic RPG – did strain a full time work force of just six, but we got it done.

“UKGE is now fully on the world stage of ‘mega-cons’, which perhaps may have been a dream of mine 20 years ago, and that means providing for the massive range of visitor and exhibitor interactions from thinking about accessibility.

“You may have seen the wider aisles in many places, to allowing for a significant amount of B2B that goes on, our roles in a personal love of mine – encouraging new designers to get their break, the family experience, charity donation, etc.

“That brings more demands and so work, but overall we wrangle most of it.”

He added that the new Pin Collective initiative, where exhibitors could choose to offer unique enamel pins for attendees to visit and collect, was “both stunningly successful and at the same time insufficient in number”. Denning said, “No one has a crystal ball in this game. We learn by experience.”

But Judson Cowan from Tettix told BoardGameWire, “I was involved in the Pin Collective thing and I wouldn’t say that was very useful. All it did was create a stream of people coming by and taking up staff time with questions, none of whom had any interest in my games.

“A flock of seagulls would descend every morning and completely destroy the day’s allotment of pins and then vanish, and we’d get an endless procession of disappointed people coming by looking for them throughout the day.

“Not one of them asked about my games. I would absolutely make pin badges again, but I absolutely would not be on a checklist of companies that were giving them out.”

Jackson Pope from Eurydice agreed, saying, “We were also in the Pin Collective, but that was a mixed bag, while it definitely drove a lot of people to the stand, the vast majority were only interested in the pins!”

Hachette’s Rob Trounce had a different experience, saying, “The Pin Collective really helped drive traffic. We made it a point that pins were tied to game demos, which helped ensure strong engagement across the stand.”

UK Games Expo returns to Birmingham NEC for its 20th anniversary event between May 29 and 31 next year.