TGS Breaks Records With 194,000 Attendance

This year's Tokyo Game Show broke attendance records with 194,288 visitors at the four-day conference, according to final tallies released by organizer CESA. 2007's Tokyo Game Show set the previous record with 193,040 attendees, over a thousand less than this year's count. The expo has grown every year since 2002, when it switched formats from a bi-annual event to a yearly show. While the first half of TGS 2008, which was open only to press and business invites, saw 10,690 less visitors, the second, public half saw attendance increase by 11,938. Attendance by minors was also down by 4,006. To compare, August's four-day Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany attracted 203,000 visitors, while October's three-day Entertainment for All Expo in Los Angeles brought in 15,000 attendees, both public conferences reporting their highest attendance yet. The largest North American game event currently is Penny Arcade Expo, which reported an estimated 58,500 attendees for this year's event, up sharply on previous years.