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Tokyo Game Show to Have Hybrid In-Person, Online Event in 2022

Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association, Nikkei BP, and Dentsu announced on Tuesday that this year's Tokyo Game Show will be a hybrid online and in-person event. Tokyo Game Show 2022 will run at the Makuhari Messe from September 15 to 18. September 15 to 16 will be business days, while September 17 to 18 will be open to the public.

The event's website explained that the event is returning to an in-person event to cater to a desire from people to experience the excitement of games in-person with other people at the same venue, but is holding an online component as well for the many people who are not able to attend the event. The theme of the event this year is "Game wa, zettai, tomaranai." (Games are absolute and won't stop).

The anime industry event AnimeJapan had planned a similar hybrid online and in-person event for 2021, but ultimately decided to make the entire event online-only.

Tokyo Game Show canceled 2020's in-person event and held an online event instead from September 23 to 27 of that year. Tokyo Game Show was similarly online-only for 2021 (although it did have an in-person component for press and influencers at Makuhari Messe).

The most recent in-person Tokyo Game Show event took place in September 2019, and drew 262,076 attendees over the course of four days. That is less than 2018's 298,690, the highest attendance on record, but more than 2017's attendance of 254,311.

Sources: Tokyo Game Show 2022, Famitsu.com