PAX 2011 Sees Roughly 70K AttendeesPAX 2011 Sees Roughly 70K Attendees

Last weekend's Penny Arcade Expo attracted approximately 70,000 attendees to the Washington State Convention Center, placing it among the largest American gaming conventions. Penny Arcade business operation manager Robert Khoo confirmed the total to tech news site Neowin. The attendance roughly matches the 69,500 confirmed attendees for last year's PAX East show in Boston, and comes in slightly above the 67,600 that attended the 2010 Seattle PAX show. International fan events like Germany's Gamescom and Japan's Tokyo Game Show routinely surpass those totals. The only American gaming-centered event to reach simialr attendance numbers is the Electronic Entertainment Expo, which peaked at roughly 70,000 industry attendees in 2005. Tickets for the show, which ran $35 for a single day of $55 for the entire three-day convention, sold out roughly three months before the doors opened. In April, organizers announced plans to expand the PAX brand into a developers-only PAX Dev show, which took place just before the main Expo last week. Penny Arcade creators Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik recently told Joystiq they are planning a third PAX show to accompany the Boston and Seattle events, though they did not detail where the new show may be located.