PAX (event)

PAX
Status	Active
Genre	Gaming (video game, tabletop, CCG, role-playing)
Venue	Various Current PAX West: Seattle Convention Center PAX East: Boston Convention and Exhibition Center PAX Aus: Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre PAX Unplugged: Pennsylvania Convention Center Former PAX South: Henry B. González Convention Center PAX East: Hynes Convention Center PAX Aus: Melbourne Showgrounds PAX West: Meydenbauer Center
Location(s)	Various Current PAX East: Boston PAX Aus: Melbourne PAX Unplugged: Philadelphia PAX West: Seattle Former PAX South: San Antonio
Country	United States Australia
Inaugurated	PAX West: August 28–29, 2004 Other PAX(s) PAX East: March 26–28, 2010 PAX Dev: August 24–25, 2011 PAX Aus: July 19–21, 2013 PAX South: January 23–25, 2015 PAX Unplugged: November 17–19, 2017
Most recent	PAX Aus: October 11–13, 2024 Other PAX(s) PAX West: August 30–September 2, 2024 PAX East: March 21–24, 2024 PAX Unplugged: December 1–3, 2023 PAX South: January 17–19, 2020 PAX Dev: August 27–28, 2019
Next event	PAX Unplugged: December 6–8, 2024 Other PAX(s) PAX East: May 8–11, 2025 PAX West: August 29–September 1, 2025 PAX Aus: TBA 2025
Organized by	Penny Arcade RELX
Website	www.paxsite.com

PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving tabletop, arcade, and video gaming. PAX is held annually in Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, and Melbourne. Previously, it was also held in San Antonio.

PAX was created in 2004 by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the authors of the Penny Arcade webcomic, because they wanted to attend a show exclusively for gaming.^[1] The shows include a keynote speech from an industry insider, game-culture inspired concerts, panels on game topics, exhibitor booths from both independent and major game developers and publishers, a LAN party multiplayer, tabletop gaming tournaments, and video game freeplay areas.

The first Penny Arcade Expo was held on August 28–29, 2004 (2004-08-28 – 2004-08-29), at the Meydenbauer Center, and was attended by about 3,300 people. Renamed PAX, it became an annual event. Attendance grew rapidly, topping 9,000 in 2005 and 19,000 in 2006.

Outgrowing the Meydenbauer Center, the event moved to the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, where it drew some 39,000 in 2007,^[2] 58,500 in 2008, 60,750 in 2009, and 70,000 in 2011. The show stopped reporting attendance numbers in 2011, citing difficulties in tracking attendance in a multi-day event.^[3]

In 2009, Penny Arcade partnered with ReedPOP.^{[4][better source needed]}

PAX Prime 2013, the first four-day PAX, was held on August 30 – September 2, 2013 (2013-08-30 – 2013-09-02); passes sold out in six hours.

In 2010, the first PAX East was held at the Hynes Convention Center on March 26–28, 2010 (2010-03-26 – 2010-03-28), drawing 52,290 attendees. The first PAX Prime drew 67,600 attendees in 2010. PAX East moved to Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in 2011; a 2012 agreement cemented Boston as the home of PAX East until 2023.^[5]

The first international event was PAX Australia, first held July 19–21, 2013 (2013-07-19 – 2013-07-21) at the Melbourne Showgrounds. The following year, it moved to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, where it remains.^[6]

The first PAX South was held in San Antonio, Texas, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center on January 23–25, 2015. It set a PAX record for highest attendance for an inaugural year.^[7] But the event saw little growth in later years, and was cancelled in October 2021.^[8]

From 2011 until 2020, Penny Arcade held PAX Dev, an annual event meant to allow the game developer community to "speak freely and focus entirely on their trade".^[9] Unlike other game-developer events like GDC, PAX Dev did not allow press. 750 people attended in 2011.

At PAX South 2017, Penny Arcade and ReedPop announced that a new event type, PAX Unplugged, would be held on November 17–19, 2017, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The event focused on tabletop games, a type that was only incidental in other PAXes.^[10]

PAX was originally known as the "Penny Arcade Expo", but quickly became known by its acronym "PAX". Seattle's PAX was renamed PAX Prime in 2010 and PAX West in 2015.^[11]

PAX consists of the following activities:^[12]

• Freeplay, further broken into: Console, Classic Console, Handheld, PC, VR, and Tabletop.
• Tournaments, further broken into: Console and Tabletop. Some PAXes feature additional tournaments hosted by vendors.
• "Bring Your Own Computer" or BYOC, a LAN Party.
• Panels, talks, signings, and similar events.
• Concerts.
• PAX Arena, an eSports tournament.
• The Omegathon.
• An Exhibition Hall, which includes game studios, merchandise, and the Indie Megabooth.

Each PAX features an event called the "Omegathon", a festival-long tournament consisting of a group of randomly selected attendees competing in a game bracket for a grand prize (which has varied from a large game bundle, to a trip to Japan, to a trip to any PAX in the world). The final round of the Omegathon makes up part of the closing ceremonies of PAX. Past games for the final round of the Omegathon have included Tetris, Pong, Halo 3, and skee-ball.

Early PAXes were largely run by a large group of volunteers, which the show calls "Enforcers". Now a paid role, most Enforcers are still not professional conference organizers or temps, but rather selected from an application available to attendees on the PAX website.^[13]

• 
  PAX West (Formerly Penny Arcade Expo, then PAX and later PAX Prime) has been held annually in Seattle, Washington, United States, since 2004.
• 
  PAX East has been held annually in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, since 2010.
• 
  PAX Aus has been held annually in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, since 2013.
• 
  PAX Unplugged has been held annually in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, since 2017.

• 
  PAX South was held annually in San Antonio, Texas, United States, between 2015 and 2020.
• 
  PAX Dev was held annually in Seattle, Washington, United States, between 2011 and 2019.
• 
  PAX Online was held virtually between 2020 and 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• DreamHack
• E3
• ChinaJoy

• Media related to PAX (event) at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website