PAX (originally called Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of festivals that celebrate gaming culture. These festivals include tabletop games, arcade games, and video games. PAX is held every year in Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, and Melbourne. It was also held in San Antonio in the past.

PAX was started in 2004 by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, who are the creators of the Penny Arcade webcomic. They wanted to create an event that focused only on gaming. The events feature speeches from people in the gaming industry, concerts inspired by gaming culture, discussion panels about games, booths where game developers and publishers show their work, LAN parties for multiplayer gaming, tabletop game tournaments, and areas where people can play video games for free.

History

The first Penny Arcade Expo was held on August 28–29, 2004 (2004-08-28 – 2004-08-29) at the Meydenbauer Center and had about 3,300 people attending. It was later renamed PAX and became an annual event. Attendance increased quickly, reaching 9,000 in 2005 and 19,000 in 2006.

As the event grew too large for the Meydenbauer Center, it moved to the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. Attendance reached about 39,000 in 2007, 58,500 in 2008, 60,750 in 2009, and 70,000 in 2011. In 2011, the event stopped sharing attendance numbers because it was difficult to track how many people attended over several days.

In 2009, Penny Arcade partnered with ReedPOP.

PAX Prime 2013, the first four-day PAX event, took place on August 30–September 2, 2013 (2013-08-30 – 2013-09-02). Tickets sold out within six hours.

In 2010, the first PAX East was held at the Hynes Convention Center on March 26–28, 2010 (2010-03-26 – 2010-03-28) and had 52,290 attendees. That same year, the first PAX Prime event had 67,600 attendees. In 2011, PAX East moved to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. An agreement in 2012 confirmed Boston as the home of PAX East until 2023.

The first international PAX event was PAX Australia, held July 19–21, 2013 (2013-07-19 – 2013-07-21) at the Melbourne Showgrounds. In 2014, it moved to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, where it continues to be held.

The first PAX South event was held in San Antonio, Texas, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center on January 23–25, 2015. It had the highest attendance for a PAX event in its first year. However, attendance did not grow much afterward, and the event was canceled in October 2021.

From 2011 to 2020, Penny Arcade held PAX Dev, an annual event for game developers to share ideas and focus on their work. Unlike other events, PAX Dev did not allow reporters to attend. In 2011, 750 people attended.

At PAX South 2017, Penny Arcade and ReedPOP announced a new event called PAX Unplugged. It was held November 17–19, 2017, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. This event focused on tabletop games, which were not the main focus of other PAX events.

The event was originally called the "Penny Arcade Expo" but became known as "PAX." Seattle’s PAX was renamed PAX Prime in 2010 and PAX West in 2015.

Activities

PAX includes the following activities:

• Freeplay, which includes: Console, Classic Console, Handheld, PC, VR, and Tabletop.
• Tournaments, which includes: Console and Tabletop. Some PAX events also have extra tournaments organized by companies.
• "Bring Your Own Computer" (BYOC), a type of LAN Party where people use their own computers to play games together.
• Panels, talks, signings, and similar events.
• Concerts.
• PAX Arena, a video game competition.
• The Omegathon.
• An Exhibition Hall, which includes game studios, merchandise, and the Indie Megabooth.

Every PAX includes an event called the "Omegathon", a long tournament where randomly chosen attendees compete in a game bracket for a grand prize. The prize has included things like a large game bundle, a trip to Japan, or a trip to any PAX event. The final round of the Omegathon is part of the closing ceremonies of PAX. Games that have been played in the final round of the Omegathon include Tetris, Pong, Halo 3, and skee-ball.

Events

• PAX West was first called Penny Arcade Expo, PAX, and PAX Prime. It has been held every year in Seattle, Washington, United States, since 2007. Before that, it was held in Bellevue, Washington, from 2004 to 2006.
• PAX East has been held every year in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, since 2010.
• PAX Aus has been held every year in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, since 2013.
• PAX Unplugged has been held every year in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, since 2017.

• PAX South was held every year in San Antonio, Texas, United States, from 2015 to 2020.
• PAX Dev was held every year in Seattle, Washington, United States, from 2011 to 2019.
• PAX Online was held online in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.