Gamescom 2026: dates, times, showcases and confirmed games

Gamescom 2026 dates and Opening Night Live time

Gamescom 2026 runs in Cologne from Wednesday, August 26 to Sunday, August 30. Its opening showcase arrives one day earlier: Opening Night Live begins Tuesday, August 25 at 8pm CEST / 7pm BST / 2pm ET / 11am PT, after a 30-minute pre-show.

Geoff Keighley hosts alongside Eefje 'Sjokz' Depoortere. Both shows will stream free through Gamescom's official YouTube and Twitch channels.

Wednesday, August 26 is primarily reserved for media and trade visitors. The public show runs from Thursday through Sunday. For viewers at home, the week works like a TV schedule: one flagship showcase surrounded by smaller, specialised broadcasts. The full timetable is below.

The Gamescom 2026 showcase schedule

Tuesday, August 25. The Opening Night Live pre-show begins at 7:30pm CEST / 6:30pm BST / 1:30pm ET / 10:30am PT. The main show follows at 8pm CEST / 7pm BST / 2pm ET / 11am PT.

Wednesday, August 26. Xbox broadcasts from its booth at 4pm CEST / 3pm BST / 10am ET / 7am PT. Future Games Show follows at 7pm CEST / 6pm BST / 1pm ET / 10am PT and will run for more than 90 minutes. FGS Live from Gamescom begins immediately afterwards with interviews and reports from the show floor.

Nick Apostolides and Angela Sant'Albano, who play Leon and Grace in Resident Evil Requiem, will host more than 40 trailers at the Future Games Show. The organisers promise world premieres, announcements and developer interviews. Its first confirmed games are Tides of Annihilation, Onimusha: Way of the Sword and No Law. That gives us the broadcast's outline, not its full running order.

From Wednesday, August 26 to Sunday, August 30. CD Projekt Red will run daily REDstreams between 10am and 7pm CEST, featuring interviews, guests and previews from Cologne. That window is rolling show-floor coverage, not nine straight hours of announcements.

Thursday, August 27. Xbox returns at 4pm CEST / 3pm BST / 10am ET / 7am PT. The 60-to-75-minute gamescom awesome indies show begins at 8pm CEST / 7pm BST / 2pm ET / 11am PT.

Sunday, August 30. Future Games Show: Best of Gamescom closes the schedule at 7pm CEST / 6pm BST / 1pm ET / 10am PT. The Gamescom Awards nominees are now public: Metro 2039 leads with five nominations, while Alien: Isolation 2 and Denshattack! have four each. Public voting runs from Wednesday, August 26 until Thursday at 2pm CEST / 1pm BST / 8am ET / 5am PT. Winners will be revealed on Friday, August 28 between 1pm and 3pm CEST.

Opening Night Live now has at least 15 confirmed games

Official confirmations now give us 15 named appearances. The biggest games include Gears of War: E-Day, Metro 2039, Tides of Annihilation, Final Fantasy VII Revelation and The Witcher 3's Songs of the Past expansion. Konami will debut a Silent Hill: Townfall trailer, while PlaySide brings the first gameplay for Game of Thrones: War for Westeros.

Ananta, Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons, ONTOS and Monster Hunter Outlanders are also confirmed. Archetype Entertainment says EXODUS will arrive with a new trailer, a well-armed companion and news it has yet to spell out.

NCSoft completes the count with AION 2, Cinder City and Project Bonfire. The last of those remains a development codename, and the company will use the show to reveal its final title and first details. Fifteen confirmed appearances do not mean 15 new announcements, but today's running order is much clearer than yesterday's.

That does not make every circulating prediction list real. Booking a booth in Cologne and appearing in Tuesday's showcase are two different commitments.

Nintendo, Capcom, Sega and Ubisoft can bring playable versions of announced games without revealing anything new on stage. Even as the noise rises before the showcase, our rule stays the same: this guide will keep company confirmation, sourced reporting and unsupported wish lists in separate boxes. I do not trust any list that mixes those three categories.

GTA 6 is a simpler case. Rockstar is not listed as an exhibitor and has reserved its own stage: the extended look is scheduled for Netflix on August 27, two days after Opening Night Live.

Playable games from Xbox, Sega, Bandai Namco, Konami and Ubisoft

Xbox is bringing 140 stations and promises 25 upcoming games. Gears of War: E-Day offers the first public hands-on with its campaign, while Minecraft Dungeons II, Stranger Than Heaven and Metro 2039 will also be playable for the first time. Demos include Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Halo: Campaign Evolved, Forza Horizon 6 and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.

Fable needs a footnote: Playground Games will perform a live gameplay demonstration inside a theater, but Xbox has not promised a public demo. Microsoft also names Alien Deathstorm, Alien: Isolation 2, Armatus, Bad Magpie, The Blood of Dawnwalker, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, Crowsworn, Genigods: Nezha, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, Star Wars Zero Company, Terrible Lizards, Turok: Origins and Valor Mortis. The announcement promises 25 games but identifies only 22.

Sega has built five headline spaces for Alien: Isolation 2, Crazy Taxi: World Tour, Stranger Than Heaven, Persona 4 Revival and Total War: Warhammer 40,000. Its free-play area adds Metaphor: ReFantazio on Switch 2, new Total War: Warhammer III content, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds and Sonic Pico Park.

Bandai Namco will let visitors play Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 and The Blood of Dawnwalker. Konami has a Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse demo, a Silent Hill: Townfall experience and areas for Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 and Yu-Gi-Oh!.

Ubisoft's main hands-on is a 20-minute Rayman Legends Retold demo with local co-op. Its Community Lounge will host Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced and Assassin's Creed Shadows panels, new Anno 117 content, a The Division 2 roadmap update and Rayman anniversary reveals.

Tickets, opening hours and how this guide will change

For the first time, Gamescom has sold every available square meter of exhibitor space. Nintendo, Xbox, Electronic Arts, Capcom, Bandai Namco, CD Projekt RED, Sega, Konami, Ubisoft, HoYoverse, Tencent, NetEase and Krafton are among the confirmed companies. 'Fully booked' refers to booths: visitor tickets remain on sale.

Public areas open from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM on Thursday, August 27 and Friday, August 28, then from 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM on Saturday and Sunday. Wednesday is the trade and media day, although organizers may admit a limited number of private visitors.

Xbox will be in Hall 7, booth A-061. Its area includes Adaptive Controllers, height-adjustable desks, a quiet room and support for visitors with sensory needs. Gamescom's location finder can also point to accessible toilets and free water dispensers.

Games Done Quick will stage its first European event here, with almost ten hours of speedruns each day from Friday to Sunday raising funds for Gaming for Democracy. The programme will also stream online.

This guide was checked in full on August 25. We will add any newly confirmed time or game before Opening Night Live begins. At least one major reveal may still be missing from the timetable, but it will remain a prediction until it has a name and a source. During the show, predictions will give way to announcements. From August 26 to 30, this guide will collect the demos, dates and surprises that survive contact with the public. The URL stays put. Its contents will not.