GDC attendance plunged
GDC 2026 attendance fell roughly 30% to about 20,000 attendees this year — a sharp decline organizers attribute to industry layoffs and an AI‑heavy program attendance drop industry color. The show’s tone was unusually anxious: heads of studios cited job cuts while panels doubled down on AI tooling as the sector’s near‑term pivot point context.
The festival recorded its smallest in-person turnout since 2011 (19,000), a historical low for the show. (gamesindustry.biz) GDC’s 2026 State of the Game Industry report surveyed more than 2,300 professionals and found that 28% had been laid off in the past two years, rising to 33% for U.S. respondents and with half saying their current or most recent employer ran layoffs in the prior 12 months. The same GDC survey showed developer sentiment toward generative AI flipped sharply negative — 52% of respondents said AI is harming the industry while just 7% said it’s positive — and only about one-third of developers report personally using GenAI at work. (finalboss.io) Big tech dominated the expo floor’s AI push: Google showcased Gemini-powered demos and Nvidia maintained a heavy presence with tooling and hardware exhibits, according to on‑the‑ground coverage of the show floor. (polygon.com) Sources told industry press that several companies redirected budgets away from GDC toward regional events like Develop:Brighton and Tokyo Game Show, and organizers confirmed this year’s program still ran more than 700 sessions with roughly 1,100 speakers and 300+ exhibitors. (gamesindustry.biz) The GDC report also captured shifting development priorities: Unreal Engine was cited as the primary engine by 42% of respondents versus Unity at 30%, Valve’s Steam Deck appeared as a top target with 28% of developers making or optimizing for it and 40% saying they’re interested in building for the handheld, and 74% of surveyed students said they’re concerned about their future job prospects. (gdconf.com)
