PAX, which was first called Penny Arcade Expo, is a series of festivals that celebrate gaming culture, including tabletop, arcade, 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 created the Penny Arcade webcomic. They wanted to attend an event that focused only on gaming. The festivals include talks by people who work in the gaming industry, concerts inspired by gaming culture, discussions about games, booths from both small and large game companies, LAN parties where people play games together, tabletop gaming competitions, and areas where visitors can play video games for free.

History

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

As the event grew larger, 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. The event stopped sharing attendance numbers in 2011 because it was hard to count how many people came to a multi-day event.

In 2009, Penny Arcade partnered with ReedPOP.

PAX Prime 2013, the first four-day PAX, was held on August 30–September 2, 2013. Tickets sold out quickly.

In 2010, the first PAX East was held at the Hynes Convention Center on March 26–28, 2010. It attracted 52,290 people. The first PAX Prime event in 2010 had 67,600 attendees. PAX East moved to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in 2011. A 2012 agreement confirmed Boston as the home of PAX East until 2023.

The first international event was PAX Australia, held July 19–21, 2013, at the Melbourne Showgrounds. The next year, it moved to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, where it remains today.

The first PAX South 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 first-year event. However, the event did not grow much in later years and was canceled in October 2021.

From 2011 until 2020, Penny Arcade held PAX Dev, an annual event meant to let game developers talk openly and focus on their work. Unlike other events, PAX Dev did not allow reporters. 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. The event focused on tabletop games, which were only a small part of other PAX events.

The event was originally called the "Penny Arcade Expo" but became known by its acronym "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 games.
• Tournaments, which includes Console and Tabletop games. Some PAX events have extra tournaments organized by companies.
• "Bring Your Own Computer" (BYOC), a LAN Party where people connect computers to play games together.
• Panels, talks, signings, and similar events.
• Concerts.
• PAX Arena, a competition for professional video game players.
• 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 play games in a bracket to win a prize. The prize has included large game bundles, trips to Japan, or trips to any PAX event. The final game of the Omegathon is part of the closing events at PAX. Past games used in the final round have included Tetris, Pong, Halo 3, and skee-ball.

Events

• PAX West (formerly called Penny Arcade Expo, PAX, and PAX Prime) 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.