E3 is gone—may it rest in peace—but although the games industry no longer crams itself into the LA Convention Center every June, we're not at all short on events. The year ahead is packed with showcases, esports tournaments, conventions, and fan gatherings, some new, some that have been going for decades.
Dates haven't been announced for all of 2024's events—we'll update this article with specifics and new events as they're announced.
January
CES | January 9-12 | Las Vegas
The biggest trade show for consumer tech. We'll be there covering all the PC gaming peripherals, chips, and gadgets on display—follow our coverage here.
Awesome Games Done Quick | January 14-21 | Pittsburgh
Annual speedrunning charity marathon. Check the streaming schedule here.
Taipei Game Show 2024 | January 25-28 | Taipei
20-year-old trade show and exhibition in Taiwan. We'll be looking out for new details on upcoming games—the show included a big Elden Ring video feature in 2022, for instance.
IEM Katowice (CS2 tournament) | Jan 31-Feb 11 | Katowice
The first of two ESL Pro Tour Championship finals this year. See the full schedule of 2024 IEM Counter-Strike 2 events here.
February
Six Invitational | February 13-25 | São Paolo
The biggest Rainbow Six: Siege event of the year will be hosted in Brazil for the first time.
D.I.C.E. Summit 2024 | February 13-15 | Las Vegas
A major industry networking event (not to be confused with Swedish developer DICE, maker of the Battlefield games). Includes the D.I.C.E Awards.
March
SXSW 2024 | March 8-16 | Austin
The famous South-by-Southwest arts festival is primarily focused on music, film, TV, and comedy, but includes some interactive arts and entertainment talks.
Steam Spring Sale | March 14-21 | Steam
The first big Steam seasonal sale of the year is usually a good opportunity to pick up some of last year's best games at a small or sometimes substantial discount. Baldur's Gate 3 was discounted for the first time in Steam's 2023 Winter Sale, so it's a good bet it'll get another discount here. See all the known upcoming Steam sale dates here.
PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 | March 17-31 | Copenhagen
The first of two Counter-Strike 2 PGL Majors this year will take place in Denmark.
GDC 2024 | March 18-22 | San Francisco
The Game Developers Conference is one of our favorite events of the year at PC Gamer: an opportunity for us to share what game developers are talking about with each other, and to chat with them in-person about their work and the business. See, for example, our roundtable discussion with five veteran RPG designers from last year's GDC.
PAX East | March 21-24 | Boston
The east coast edition of the long-running gaming fan convention, with panels, expo booths, a big tabletop gaming space, and a PC LAN area.
April
DreamHack Australia | April 26-28 | Australia
The Australian stop on the yearly, worldwide tour of DreamHack events, which feature esports, a cosplay competition, and LAN gaming. Last year's was in Melbourne, but a specific venue for this year hasn't been announced.
May
DreamHack Dallas | May 31-June 2 | Dallas
The Texas stop on the DreamHack tour will be "bigger than ever" according to the organizers of the annual esports, cosplay, and LAN event.
June
Tribeca Festival | June 5-6 | New York
Film festival that has expanded to include interactive art.
DreamHack Summer | June 14-16 | Jönköping
DreamHack's mid-year event takes place in Jönköping, Sweden.
Summer Game Fest | June 7-10| Los Angeles
Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest has so far comprised a big livestreamed showcase and a physical event for press—smaller than E3, but something—and is also used as an umbrella term to refer to the many livestreamed showcases that are still scattered throughout June.
Here's this year's summer gaming showcase schedule:
| Showcase | Date | PDT (Los Angeles) | BST (London) |
|---|---|---|---|
| State of Play | May 30, 2024 | 3 pm PDT | 11 pm BST |
| OTK Games Expo | June 4, 2024 | 12 pm PDT | 8 pm BST |
| Guerrilla Collective | June 6, 2024 | 10 am PDT | 6 pm BST |
| Access-Ability Showcase | June 7, 2024 | 8 am PDT | 4 pm BST |
| Summer Game Fest | June 7, 2024 | 2 pm PDT | 10 pm BST |
| Day of the Devs | June 7, 2024 | Following Summer Game Fest | Following Summer Game Fest |
| Devolver Direct | June 7, 2024 | 5 pm PDT | 1 am BST |
| Wholesome Direct | June 8, 2024 | 9 am PDT | 5 pm BST |
| Future Games Show | June 8, 2024 | 12 pm PDT | 8 pm BST |
| Xbox Games Showcase | June 9, 2024 | 10 am PDT | 6 pm BST |
| PC Gaming Show | June 9, 2024 | 1 pm PDT | 9 pm BST |
| Ubisoft Forward | June 10, 2024 | 12 pm PDT | 8 pm BST |
| Nintendo Direct | June, 2024 | Time TBA | Time TBA |
Gamescom Latam 2024 | June 26-30 | São Paolo
A new Latin American Gamescom offshoot that has merged with the BIG Festival, an important independent games-focused event we attended in 2022.
Steam Summer Sale | June 27-July 11 | Steam
The second of Steam's seasonal sales is usually one of the biggest. See all the known upcoming Steam sale dates here.
TwitchCon Europe | June 29-30 | Rotterdam Ahoy
The first of two Twitch shindigs this year takes place in Rotterdam. The second is in San Diego in September.
July
TennoCon 2024 | July 19-20 | London, Ontario
The yearly Warframe fan convention put on by developer Digital Extremes.
BitSummit Drift 2024 | July 19-21 | Kyoto
A Japanese independent games festival that started in 2012.
Comic-Con | July 25-28 | San Diego
An enormous fan event covering comic books, films, and games. Reliably a source for movie news, and sometimes for tidbits about upcoming superhero games.
SIGGRAPH 2024 | July 28-August 1 | Denver
Computer graphics and simulation developers get together to share their techniques, work, and research. Lots of cool tech demos to watch.
August
Gen Con | August 1-4 | Indianapolis
A huge tabletop gaming gathering that was founded by Gary Gygax himself.
QuakeCon | August 8-11 | Grapevine, Texas
Last year's id Software-centric fan event brought back the in-person LAN party in Grapevine, Texas, and it's returning again this year. During last year's QuakeCon, id Software announced and released the Quake 2 remaster.
IEM Cologne 2024 (CS2 tournament) | August 16-18 | Cologne
Finals of the year's second ESL Pro Tour Championship.
Gamescom 2024 | August 21-25 | Cologne
For a few years running, Europe's huge gaming trade show has kicked off with a Geoff Keigley-hosted livestream called Opening Night Live. Expect at least a couple major announcements during that showcase, and we typically attend the physical event for hands-on demos and developer interviews.
PAX West | August 30-September 2 | Seattle
Long-running fan convention featuring a big expo hall, panels, performers, and PC and tabletop gaming areas.
Valorant Champions 2024 | August 1-25 | Seoul
The conclusion of the 2024 Valorant Champions Tour. We now know that it'll be taking place in Seoul, with the group stage starting on August 1 and then brackets beginning on August 14.
September
The International (Dota 2 tournament) | September 13-15 | Copenhagen
Valve has dropped the details for the years big Dota 2 finals, with teams headed to The International in Copenhagen's Royal Arena. Group stages start on September 4, with The International proper running from September 13-15.
TwitchCon North America | September 20-22 | San Diego
Twitch's second event of the year takes place at the San Diego Convention Center.
Tokyo Game Show 2024 | September 26-29 | Chiba, Japan
One of the year's major industry events, TGS will include news and showcases from Japanese game studios, as well as publishers and developers from around the world.
October
DreamHack Atlanta | October 4-6 | Atlanta
The second-to-last DreamHack expo of the year will take place in Georgia.
PAX Aus | October 11-13 | Melbourne
PAX's Australia event is returning in 2024—and yet again in Melbourne in mid-October.
New York Comic-Con | October 17-20 | New York
The New York version of Comic-Con. Like the San Diego event, expect a few bits of news on comic-based and comic-adjacent games.
Gamescom Asia 2024 | October 17-20 | Singapore
An offshoot of the German expo that will take place at Suntec Convention Centre in Singapore.
November
BlizzCon 2024 | Not happening this year
Blizzard's big annual fan event normally happens around this time, but it's skipping this year.
League of Legends World Final | November 2 | London
The conclusion to this year's LoL esports season.
Blast Premier World Final (CS2 tournament) | November 13-17 | Abu Dhabi
Conclusion to a year-long Counter-Strike 2 tournament series.
DreamHack Stockholm | November 22-24 | Stockholm
The final DreamHack event of the year.
December
Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 (CS2 tournament) | December 1-15 | Shanghai
The year's second Counter-Strike Major will take place in China.
The Game Awards | December 12 | Los Angeles
Geoff Keighley's annual awards show is about big reveals as much as it is awards. Last year we got our first look at Hello Games' next big project, a teaser for Kojima's horror collab with Jordan Peele, and dozens of other trailers—we compiled them all here.
TFT Macao Open | December 13-15 | Macao
The year's biggest Teamfight Tactics tournament, with a $300K prize pool.
