Games Developer Conference 2016 breaks attendance record

Tens of thousands of game industry workers descended upon San Francisco last week.

The 2016 Games Developer Conference broke attendance records for the event with over 27,000 industry professionals attending the show in the Moscone Center from March 14 to March 18. Last year, the conference boasted over 26,000 attendees. The growth comes as excitement at the show focused on virtual reality and the upcoming consumer devices Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, and the HTC Vive. Tech advisor Digi-Capital predicts that the VR market will generate $30 billion in spending by 2020, and that’s on top of a gaming industry that is already generating $99.3 billion annually.

“This year’s GDC, paired with the inaugural VRDC [Virtual Reality Developers Conference], allows us to look both backwards at the legacy and lessons of previous years, and forward to the future of games and VR experiences,” said Meggan Scavio, general manager of the Game Developers Conference in a press release sent to GamesBeat. “Even in its 30th edition, GDC continues to evolve and grow to encompass all of the key lessons, advancements, and artistic strides that the industry makes. Once again, the staff, volunteers, speakers, students and attendees have made GDC 2016 an amazing, fun, and safe show all around. As technologies mature and tastes in games change, we’re happy have a place for all of our friends, colleagues, and soon-to-be-friends to meet about, learn about, and discuss the games and VR experiences that we love. Games are becoming the most popular form of entertainment in the modern world, so it’s only appropriate that GDC carry with it the same spirit of fun, adventure, and discovery as the games themselves, just as it has since its beginning.”

GDC will return to San Francisco and the Moscone Center in 2017 from February 27 to March 3. You can check out our extensive coverage of the 2016 show here.