PAX UNPLUGGED 2024 CELEBRATES SOLD OUT ATTENDANCE FOR 20TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR
PHILADELPHIA – Dec. 12, 2024 – Show organizers ReedPop and Penny Arcade have wrapped up PAX Unplugged 2024, the most attended tabletop gaming convention on the East Coast, with its biggest event to date. This year’s event set records for attendance, selling out all three days for the first time, with more than 800 attending media and content creators, and more than 350 exhibitors representing major brands like Disney, Marvel, Warhammer, and CATAN.
The show welcomed tens of thousands of tabletop enthusiasts from around the world, alongside fans engaging with the 20th anniversary PAX festivities across online platforms like X/Twitter, Instagram, and Twitch. Occupying all 528,000 square feet of the Pennsylvania Convention Center’s expo halls, attendees explored an expo hall full of 350 exhibitors dedicated to all things board, card, role-playing, and other forms of electricity-free gaming, along with a large area dedicated to playing games with friends and strangers. Festivities elsewhere across the venue included a variety of panels from noteworthy figures, concerts, chances to play upcoming games, competitive tournaments, and community meetups.
New Experiences
PAX Unplugged continues to add new programming to keep the show fresh each year. For 2024, attendees experienced the first concert in PAX Unplugged history, headlined by Jonathan “JoCo” Coulton (“Still Alive” from Portal, The Spongebob Musical, “Code Monkey”, and more), alongside long-running comedy music duo Paul and Storm performing live acoustic sets.
PAX Unplugged 2024 also featured a multi-day Jubensha experience, the popular live murder mystery game from China, newly emerging in the American convention scene.
Expert Talks & Panels
Elizabeth Hargrave, award-winning game designer of titles like Wingspan, kicked off the show on Friday, Dec. 6, with her personal and informative keynote speech, as part of PAX’s traditional show-opening Storytime.
This year’s schedule featured three full days of panels, with Matthew Mercer and Ashley Johnson, stars of one of the biggest Dungeons & Dragons actual play shows, Critical Role, and its Amazon series The Legend of Vox Machina, which just premiered its third season. Their panel offered fans an exclusive first look at their anticipated upcoming game Daggerheart.
On Friday, fans gathered to hear from the team publishing a lost tabletop game from a legendary sci-fi author in “Kurt Vonnegut’s GHQ: The Lost Board Game.” Former NFL player Johnny Stanton, and former professional fighter Tank Tolman, talked about how to join disparate enthusiast worlds in “Athletes in Tabletop: Walking the Jock/Nerd Binary” on Saturday.
Show Floor Experience
In addition to the exciting programming including panels, tournaments, and community meetups, PAX Unplugged also featured a busy show floor with more than 350 vendors and exhibitors.
Illustrious tabletop game developers and publishers featured on the show floor included Games Workshop (Warhammer), Dice Throne (Marvel), Ravensburger (Disney Lorcana), CATAN Studio (CATAN), and R.Talsorian Games (Cyberpunk franchise).
Tournaments and Special Events
PAX Unplugged featured tournaments for players of all skill levels, including the return of Omegathon, a weekend-long tournament and PAX tradition where 16 attendees square off leading up to the show-closing final with a mystery game. Retro fans gathered together in the Classic Cardboard area, which featured a collection of nostalgic board games attendees could play together.
Newcomers to the tabletop gaming world visited the Learn & Play area, where community members and experts taught attendees how to play the latest games. Several other fan-favorite franchises, including Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and Star Wars: Unlimited held tournaments and playthroughs throughout the weekend.
The PAX Rising Showcase, sponsored by leading board game funding platform Kickstarter, spotlighted several independent titles with adventurous ideas like Pirates of the High Teas by Pink Hawk Games, PNW: Card Games Inspired by the Pacific Northwest from Gameswell, and Chicken Fried Dice by Urban Professional Games.
Looking Ahead
The success of PAX Unplugged 2024 shows that tabletop gaming is a thriving industry with incredible demand for attendees and exhibitors to come together in a way that only events like PAX Unplugged can provide. PAX Unplugged 2025 promises even more events, exhibitors, and exciting opportunities for fans and the industry.
Save the Date for the 2025 show dates:
- PAX East (Boston): May 8 - May 11
- PAX West (Seattle): August 29 - September 1
- PAX Unplugged (Philadelphia): November 21 - November 23
About PAX
PAX, or Penny Arcade Expo, is a festival for gamers to celebrate gaming culture. First held in Seattle in 2004, PAX has nearly doubled in size each successive year, with PAX Prime 2014 selling out of tickets in a matter of minutes. Connecting the world's leading game publishers with their most avid and influential fans, PAX expanded with a second show in Boston in 2010, and a third in San Antonio in 2015, making it the three largest gaming shows in North America. The first international PAX was held in Melbourne, Australia in 2013. In 2017, Penny Arcade established PAX Unplugged, its first tabletop-focused show, held in Philadelphia.
About ReedPop
ReedPop is a boutique group within RX – one of the world’s leading event organizers. Launched in 2006, the group has become the number one producer of pop culture events globally and a full-service digital content provider and media company. Delivering once-in-a-lifetime fan experiences curated specifically for localized audiences, ReedPop currently features events in North America, Europe and Asia, including New York Comic Con (NYCC), Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2), PAX West, East, and Unplugged, Emerald City Comic Con (ECCC), Star Wars Celebration, MCM Comic Con, Eurogamer Expo (EGX), MagicCon, and more. In addition to organizing and managing events, ReedPop owns and operates the pop culture news site, Popverse, which is the exclusive home for livestreams from all of ReedPop's major comic cons. The staff at ReedPop are a fan-based group of professionals uniquely qualified to build and serve the communities with whom they share a common passion.
About Penny Arcade
Penny Arcade has been the world’s most popular webcomic for over 20 years, with over 3.5 million readers. Started in 1998 in the living room of Mike Krahulik & Jerry Holkins, it has grown into a media empire encompassing multiple beloved properties such as Lookouts, Automata, and beloved D&D live-play series Acquisitions Incorporated. Penny Arcade was responsible for the creation of Child’s Play, a gaming charity that has raised over $45 million dollars for children across the world. They are also the founders of PAX, the number one consumer gaming festival in North America, with hundreds of thousands of loyal visitors every year.
Media Contacts
Veronica Stodolnik / Carter Dotson / Brigitte Gautreaux
Stride PR for ReedPop
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