PAX, which was first called Penny Arcade Expo, is a series of events that celebrate gaming culture. These events include activities like board games, arcade games, and video games. PAX takes place 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. At PAX, there are talks by people who work in the gaming industry, concerts inspired by gaming culture, discussions about games, booths where companies show their games, group activities where people play games together on connected computers, competitions for board games, and areas where people can play video games for free.

History

The first Penny Arcade Expo took place on August 28–29, 2004, at the Meydenbauer Center. About 3,300 people attended the event. 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 larger, it moved to the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. Attendance reached 39,000 in 2007, 58,500 in 2008, 60,750 in 2009, and 70,000 in 2011. In 2011, the organizers stopped sharing attendance numbers because it was difficult to count people at a multi-day event.

In 2009, Penny Arcade partnered with ReedPOP.

PAX Prime 2013, the first four-day PAX event, was held from August 30 to September 2, 2013. Tickets sold out in six hours.

In 2010, the first PAX East took place at the Hynes Convention Center from March 26–28, 2010. It had 52,290 attendees. 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 PAX event was PAX Australia, held July 19–21, 2013, 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 took place in San Antonio, Texas, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center from January 23–25, 2015. It had the highest attendance for a PAX event in its first year. However, the event did not grow much in later years and was cancelled in October 2021.

From 2011 to 2020, Penny Arcade held PAX Dev, an annual event for game developers to discuss their work without press present. 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 several activities:

One activity is called the "Omegathon," which is a long event where a group of randomly chosen attendees compete in a game bracket for a grand prize. The prize has changed over time, including a large game bundle, a trip to Japan, or a trip to any PAX in the world. The final round of the Omegathon is part of the closing ceremonies of PAX. Previous games played in the final round have included Tetris, Pong, Halo 3, and skee-ball.