GamesCom enters the ranks of E3 on its first year

With a bajillion gaming conventions going on this year, and the global economy being the way it is, you'd think gamers would need to pick and choose their events more carefully. You would actually think that if you decided to run your brand new gaming convention the exact same days as BlizzCon, you're in for some problems. Well, you'd be wrong.

GamesCom in Cologne, Germany has just reported its attendance numbers and it blew away all expectations. 245,000 people attended the 5-day event that exhibited 458 companies from 31 countries. Quite a feat considering it was their first year. Our parent site, Joystiq, was on the ground at GamesCom and can provide more helpful statistics such as liters of Kölsch consumed and number of times they ran into champion boxer Wladimir Klitschko. Very important stuff.