Gamescom 2026 Kicks Off Next Week With a Sold Out Show Floor, and Opening Night Live Airs August 25

The quiet stretch of August is officially over. Gamescom 2026 takes over Cologne from August 26 to 30, and this year the event hits a milestone it has never reached before: every square meter of exhibition space is sold out. Last year's edition drew 357,000 visitors and 1,568 exhibitors from 72 countries, and organizers say demand this time is higher than it has ever been.

Video: gamescom on YouTube

Opening Night Live is where the news lands

Most of us will experience gamescom from a couch, and that means Tuesday, August 25 is the date to circle. Geoff Keighley's Opening Night Live streams at 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET / 8 PM CEST on YouTube and Twitch, with a 30 minute pre show before the main broadcast. Past editions have run about two hours, and this one already has a strong confirmed slate.

The headliner is a fresh look at Final Fantasy VII Revelation, the closing chapter of the Remake trilogy. CD Projekt Red brings Songs of the Past, the new story expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and Game of Thrones: War for Westeros gets a reveal too. Ananta and ONTOS round out the confirmed list, and if history is any guide, the unannounced world premieres usually outnumber the confirmed ones. We would not expect first party Nintendo reveals here though, since the company traditionally saves those for its own Directs even while it demos games on the show floor.

A sold out floor with some genuine surprises

The show floor itself, open August 26 to 30 with the first day reserved for trade visitors and press, is where this year gets interesting. The official exhibitor highlights already listed on the gamescom site include Alien: Isolation 2, Minecraft Dungeons II, Rayman Legends Retold, Persona 4 Revival, Star Wars Zero Company and The Blood of Dawnwalker, alongside live service giants like Street Fighter 6 and Genshin Impact. If you are planning to queue for the Genshin booth, our Genshin Impact codes page is worth a look before you go, since HoYoverse tends to drop new freebies around big events.

There is a first timer worth mentioning too: Games Done Quick makes its European debut at gamescom this year, running three days of charity speedruns inside the halls. Nintendo, Xbox, EA, Ubisoft, Capcom, Konami and Tencent are all confirmed exhibitors, which is about as complete a lineup as this industry gets in 2026.

Our take: this is shaping up to be the busiest news week of the year so far, and it does not even end with gamescom. Rockstar's extended look at GTA 6 premieres August 27, right in the middle of the show. Clear your evenings, because between Opening Night Live on Tuesday and everything that follows, next week is going to move fast.