Devcom Developer Conference 2024 is its biggest yet, attendance up 45% from 2023

Devcom Developer Conference 2024 has hit its highest attendance yet, securing more than 5000 participants, up 45% from 2023.

Organisers say the move to the new Koelnmesse Confex conference centre enabled it to boost not only its speakers and partners, but attendees, too, with 1300 Gamescom trade visitors registering for the event.

The conference featured more than 350 speakers - that's 100 more than 2023 - who presented their topics across 210+ sessions on 17 stages and the keynote stage.

The extra capacity hosted representatives from 1660 companies from 83 countries to attend, from small indie companies to "large, established companies."

"Additional side events, such as the Xsolla Game Night, European Game Night, and Courage Cologne, contributed to thousands of additional attendees," the organisers said.

"This year's devcom Developer Conference was an extraordinary success, exceeding all our expectations and breaking records," said Stephan Reichart, MD of game events GmbH.

"The move to Koelnmesse's new Confex has allowed us to expand our offering and create a more spacious environment for our attendees, speakers and partners.

"Compared to last year, we recorded a 45% increase in visitor numbers, which underscores the growing importance of devcom within the global games industry. Our B2B program was extremely well received, giving publishers and developers additional days to negotiate new projects at Devcom and Gamescom."

Devcom organisers revealed the results of this year's speaker survey earlier this week, noting almost 90% of respondents believed AAA games can succeed without including additional purchases.

The result comes after years of scrutiny over add-on-purchases within the AAA games spaces, including loot boxes, battle/season passes, and progress boosters such as XP multipliers and crafting resources.