Gaming Conventions first started as technology trade shows like the Consumer Electronics Show first held in 1967 in New York showing off the latest tech which allowed niche groups to develop and grow into their conventions. Video game conventions have been on the rise for the last 20 years as events like E3, which debuted in 1995, or PAX which was first held in 2004, have paved the way for over 80 different gaming conventions every year in the US alone. 

Here in Las Vegas, we have our own very special gaming convention held every year called LVL UP EXPO. The LVL UP EXPO is a gaming convention centered around video games, anime, ESports, and gaming tournaments which is constantly expanding. The LVL UP EXPO was created in 2013 here in the Vegas Valley and has been at the Las Vegas Convention Center for the last 6 years. The LVL UP EXPO was created by Colten Pipkin and his friend Lauren Arancibia in 2012 as a way for Colten and his friends to nerd out together.

Ever since creating the LVL UP EXPO, attendance for this event has doubled every year causing the event to grow and adapt by adding more content for attendees including wrestling, kpop lip sync battles, battle bots, anime car shows, and adding more types of video games and card games to their tournaments. Within the LVL UP EXPO tournaments, we have seen a huge call back to older games such as Super Mario, Duck Hunt, Street Fighters, etc. Seeing these games still have relevance made me curious about how the sales of these games are affected by gaming conventions like LVL UP.

“While our main goal for picking the games we do for tournaments is ease of travel and ease of playability for all players,” Alex Pesante, head organizer for console tournaments for LVL UP said. “I can say probably yes we do affect the sales of these games due to us increasing the exposure of them.”

This trend does seem to correlate with the sales at least for Nintendo products. Around the same time last year Nintendo made 145,961 million yen in sales from the US and 601,070 million yen in ordinary profit. This year they are expecting to make a 620,000 million yen ordinary profit. Also Super Smash Bros Ultimate is Nintendo’s 3rd highest top-selling title with 33.67 million copies sold since its release on the Switch alone. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was the biggest competition at LVL UP with over 300 competitors entering the tournament and with a cash prize of $10k. 

However, sales change across different platforms on Steam Street Fighters 6, a game included in the LVL UP console tournaments, has gone down in popularity on Steam being at #67 in Steam’s top sellers list the week of the expo. Despite its decline on Steam, in total Street Fighters 6 has sold over 3 million copies since its release in June last year. Within Xbox, the Street Fighters 6 demo is listed within the top 100 demos. 

But having games in tournaments isn’t the only way conventions are helping in the sales of video games. Many gaming conventions, including LVL UP, include sections where game developers can showcase the games they are working on. LVL UP had 14 indie game developers this year. Having a space for indie developers to show off their work before it is even done can help a game get off the ground or spread the word about the game before its official launch.

 “While I (and many other people at conventions) ignore/briefly look into the game’s booth setup, that alone is already enough to get the game’s proverbial foot in the door of your mind (and thus is doing more in terms of boosting brand recognition)”, said Joshua Gumallaoi, UNLV student and Super Smash Bro. Ultimate tournament competitor. “There is also the smaller yet still present group of people who do take the time to check it out and ask questions and develop an actual interest in the game. From there they may end up purchasing the game / pledging to support the game developers on Patreon or something.”

Conventions are a great way for developers to also get feedback on games and fix them before their official release. Many games run into bugs or errors during showcases of their games/demos which allows developers to quickly fix issues that they may not have found until after release. 

“We’ve had some horrible bugs, hard crashed, and times when the game just completely dies”, said Phil Duncan, co-developer of Overcooked to Vice in 2016. “We had one bug originally where you could throw away the fire extinguisher and you couldn’t get it back, and the whole kitchen would catch fire and the people playing would ask, “What do I do now?” All we could do was shrug.”

Having this demo before launch paid off for the Overcooked team who have made 12.6 million dollars in revenue and have sold 1.3 million copies. While Overcooked 2 made the company 20.6 million dollars in revenue as well as selling 1.3 million copies. 

Another way conventions help boost game sales is through collaborations with content creators. LVL UP had 9 Esports commentators which were composed of Twitch streamers, hosts from Nintendo Esports events, and content creators commentating on all of their PC tournaments over the 3-day event. Having these collaborations increases the amount of eyes on the project or game. Not only does having brand collaborations boost game interactions it also helps developers by providing more resources to make the collaboration possible. According to Tianyi Gu, “On average, IP and/or brand collaborations boosted their game’s Daily Active Users (DAU) by 11% in the first seven days of a launch.”

Another way having content creators’ collabs boost sales, is not only in exposure but also brings more people together in one given area. People will come to meet the content creators they enjoy and they also get to watch them play or comment on different content. Collaborating with gaming influencers and content creators can provide access to highly engaged audiences and lend credibility to gaming brands.”, said Giresh Sanaboyina who specializes in digital marketing. “Leveraging SEO-friendly keywords such as “Let’s Play,” “Game Review,” and “Gaming Tips” can help target relevant audiences on YouTube and Twitch.” Fans respect the opinion of their content creators, so to have your favorite creator talk well about a game can drastically increase the sales of your game.

“Game conventions do help boost games thanks to social media and their content creators since they’re a way to show people older games since there are no longer demos to be downloaded like in the 7th generation thus making conventions and streamers the way to watch and arrive after buying a game”, said Alberto Del Castillo, an attendee who went to Electronic Gaming Show from 2000-2010.  “As physical media is being displaced by digital media, it becomes less and less likely to find ways to promote games and bolster the sales beyond collaborations between streamers, video game developers, and conventions so using these methods has a bigger impact since some of the content creators have huge followers counts which makes a huge impact for less of the cost.”

In conclusion, gaming conventions help boost game sales across the whole gaming industry in many ways but none of these events would be possible without all of the fans attending these conventions. Gaming conventions are not only important for developers and competitors but also for the gaming community to find new games to be passionate about but also keep old games alive and relevant.