Every April, London does something most cities cannot quite manage: it turns a video games festival into a genuinely city-wide event. Not a convention centre. Not a single postcode. A full week of activity spread across venues from South Kensington to White City, from the South Bank to Trafalgar Square, drawing in everyone from ten-year-old first-time players to the investors who fund the studios that make the games they love.
If you have heard that London Games Festival 2026 is worth attending but are not entirely sure which part of it is relevant to you, that is the gap this guide is designed to close. The official festival page describes what the events are. This guide tells you which ones are yours, what to book first, and how to move between them without losing a day to poor planning.
London Games Festival began in 2016 as a focused celebration of the UK games industry. In the years since, it has grown into something considerably harder to summarise in a sentence. The 2026 edition is the eleventh, and by most measures the most significant yet. For the first time, the festival operates with direct UK Government support as part of the Modern Industrial Strategy, a funding commitment projected to return £30 million of investment into the games industry annually. Supported by the Mayor of London and delivered by Games London, an initiative from Film London, the festival now carries both cultural and economic weight that few events in any industry can claim.
The numbers from 2025 give a sense of scale. 102,000 people attended 26 different events. 5,000 of those were industry professionals from 31 countries. Nearly half of all visitors came from outside London. The 2026 edition is larger on every measure.
Since 2016, Games London has helped facilitate over £110 million in completed deals and software sales for games studios. London is already the largest games cluster in Europe, home to hundreds of games businesses and a workforce of over 13,000.
The most important thing to understand about London Games Festival 2026 is that it does not happen in one place. Seven days of activity run across Trafalgar Square, the Exhibition Centre in White City, BFI Southbank, Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre, the V&A in South Kensington, and Cadogan Hall in Chelsea, alongside dozens of community-organised side events at venues across the capital.
Knowing which venue you need, on which day, for which event is the difference between a well-spent week and a frustrating one.
The festival runs from Monday 13 April to Sunday 19 April 2026. Each event within it serves a distinct purpose and a distinct audience. What follows is the clearest possible breakdown of what is on, when it is on, and who it is for.
Open-air showcase celebrating games professionals from Black, Asian, and underrepresented ethnicities. 10am to 6pm.
Free Entry
Curated studio-to-investor pitch meetings. Co-development and self-publishing strands added in 2026.
Industry
One-day conference on the creative and commercial crossover between games, film, and television.
Industry
The consumer expo. Official Selection of 40 indie titles. Moved to a larger venue in 2026, doubling exhibition space.
Public Ticketed
22nd ceremony. 42 nominated games across 17 categories. Available on BAFTA YouTube for those not attending.
Industry / Stream
Pre-festival evening event rethinking the boundaries of play, performance, and spectacle. Curated by Susie Buchan.
Free Entry
The festival opens at Trafalgar Square. One of London’s most recognisable civic spaces, flanked by the National Gallery to the north and Nelson’s Column at its centre, Trafalgar Square has hosted the festival’s most publicly accessible events for several years. In 2026, the opening day brings the Ensemble exhibition: a free, open-air showcase celebrating games industry professionals from Black, Asian, and underrepresented ethnicities. The aim is direct. It shows the breadth of roles available in the creative industries and the range of people who fill them. No ticket required. Doors open at 10am and the event runs until 6pm.
On Tuesday 14 and Wednesday 15 April, the focus shifts entirely to business. The Games Finance Market is the festival’s central B2B event: a structured, curated programme of studio-to-investor pitch meetings, co-development conversations, and self-publishing opportunities. Since 2016, Games London has facilitated over £110 million in completed deals through this programme. The 2026 edition expands its scope, adding dedicated strands for co-development partnerships and independent studios seeking capital without a traditional publisher.
For developers, this is the most commercially significant two days in the UK games calendar. For investors and funds, it is a concentrated pipeline of vetted, pitch-ready opportunities from studios across the UK and internationally.
Also on 15 April, Screen Play takes place at BFI Southbank on the South Bank. This one-day conference examines the connections between games, film, and television: the creative crossovers, the shared talent pipelines, and the commercial opportunities that exist where the screen industries meet. BFI Southbank, one of the South Bank’s most established cultural institutions, sits beside the Thames within the same complex as the National Theatre and the Royal Festival Hall. It is an appropriate setting for a conversation about how storytelling moves between mediums.
Thursday 16 and Friday 17 April bring New Game Plus: the festival’s consumer expo and its most significant expansion in 2026. The event moves to the Exhibition Centre in White City, doubling its floor space compared to previous years. White City, built on the former BBC broadcast site in west London, has evolved into one of the capital’s most active media and entertainment hubs. The larger venue means a wider selection of games on show, thousands more attendees, and a fuller experience for visitors who want to play, watch, and discover.
The festival’s Official Selection, a curated showcase of around 40 of the best new independent games from around the world, is presented here. New Game Plus is the event most general visitors are attending when they say they are going to London Games Festival.
Friday 17 April closes with the 22nd BAFTA Games Awards ceremony at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre. This is the UK games industry’s most prestigious awards night, with 42 nominated games across 17 categories, voted on by BAFTA’s global membership of experienced games practitioners. The ceremony is available to watch on BAFTA’s YouTube channel for those not attending in person. For industry professionals, attending is a matter of professional relevance as much as celebration.
The cultural programme extends the festival into spaces not traditionally associated with games. At the V&A in South Kensington, one of the world’s great design and applied arts museums, a free Friday Late event on 27 March opens the festival’s extended season with an evening centred on play, performance, and spectacle. It begins several weeks before the main festival week, which makes it worth noting for those who are in London in late March.
At Cadogan Hall, an intimate concert venue in Chelsea, the London Video Game Orchestra performs a programme of orchestrated music from titles including the Final Fantasy series and the Super Mario universe. Community-organised side events run throughout all seven days at venues across the city, covering everything from game jams to screenings and specialist talks.
Understanding the festival’s structure matters less if you do not know which strand of it is actually relevant to your situation. The week serves a wide range of visitors, and the experience of each one looks quite different from the others.
New Game Plus on 16 and 17 April at White City is the event built for you. Forty curated indie games on the Official Selection, demos across all major platforms, and the full expo atmosphere of a well-organised consumer show. The Trafalgar Square opening on 13 April is worth adding if you are in London at the start of the week. It is free, centrally located, and offers a genuine introduction to the breadth of what games culture looks like in 2026.
Trafalgar Square on 13 April is the most accessible starting point: free entry, open air, central location, and no specialist knowledge required to enjoy it. New Game Plus at White City is also suitable for older children and teenagers, particularly those who follow independent game development or have an interest in seeing what is coming before it reaches retail.
The Self-Publishing Toolkit: Live Sessions, included as part of the All Access Pass, offers direct practical value for anyone building a career in games. Screen Play on 15 April at BFI Southbank is worth attending for anyone working or studying at the intersection of games and other screen industries. The conversations happening across the Games Finance Market on 14 and 15 April set the context for the industry that students and new graduates are entering, even for those not attending directly.
The Games Finance Market on 14 and 15 April is where the week begins and ends for most working developers. The expanded co-development and self-publishing strands in 2026 reflect a shift in how studios are financing and releasing games, and the curated nature of the pitch meetings means conversations are structured rather than speculative. Official Selection submissions and side event applications are open through the festival website at festival.games.london.
The Games Finance Market is the primary destination. The VIP networking day that opens the festival on 13 April provides a structured introduction before the pitch programme begins. The BAFTA Games Awards on 17 April, while a ceremony rather than a business event, draws a concentrated gathering of the industry’s senior figures in a single venue. For international delegates, the festival now operates a formal meeting system through the All Access Pass that allows pre-scheduled introductions before arriving in London.
In 2025, 14 per cent of all visitors came from outside the UK. The free events at Trafalgar Square and the V&A offer an accessible entry point into a festival that can feel complex from the outside. New Game Plus at White City on 16 and 17 April is the natural centrepiece for visitors who are in London primarily to attend the festival. The Cadogan Hall concert and the community side events provide further options for evenings and time between the main programme.
London Games Festival 2026 is not the kind of event you navigate on foot. The venues are spread across the city, from White City in the west to the South Bank in the east, with Trafalgar Square sitting roughly between them. Planning transport in advance is not optional if you are attending multiple events across the week.
For international visitors arriving through Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, or any of London’s other major airports, the journey from arrival to accommodation sets the tone for everything that follows. Carrying luggage, navigating unfamiliar terminals, and working to a schedule that begins the following morning leaves little margin for disruption.
A pre-booked transfer removes that uncertainty. Umbrella Transfers provides door-to-door airport service with fixed pricing, flight monitoring, and meet and greet on arrival. There are no hidden charges, no surge pricing, and no moment of standing at arrivals hoping a driver is nearby. If a flight is delayed, the pickup adjusts automatically.
The spread of venues is worth mapping before the festival begins. Trafalgar Square sits in central London, easily reached via Charing Cross on the Northern and Bakerloo lines or Embankment on the District and Circle lines. The Exhibition Centre in White City is served by Wood Lane on the Circle and Hammersmith and City lines. BFI Southbank and Queen Elizabeth Hall are both on the South Bank, most directly reached via Waterloo. The V&A is in South Kensington, served by the Piccadilly, Circle, and District lines.
For industry professionals attending events across multiple days and venues, the logistics of moving between sites while maintaining a schedule of meetings is a genuine operational consideration. On 15 April, Games Finance Market and Screen Play run in parallel across two separate venues. On 17 April, New Game Plus and the BAFTA Games Awards both fall on the same day. A pre-booked private transfer between venues offers a reliable alternative to the Tube on days when timing is critical.
Umbrella Transfers operates across the full city, including point-to-point journeys between festival venues for delegates who need to move between sites without uncertainty.
The festival operates across several different ticketing structures. Some events are entirely free. Others require individual tickets. Industry professionals attending the full week have a single pass option that covers the core programme. What follows is a clear summary of each.
The Ensemble exhibition at Trafalgar Square on 13 April requires no ticket and no advance registration. The V&A Friday Late event on 27 March is also free to enter. Community-organised side events throughout the week vary in format, but the majority carry no admission charge. The BAFTA Games Awards ceremony is available to watch on BAFTA’s YouTube channel at no cost for those who cannot attend in person.
New Game Plus on 16 and 17 April at the Exhibition Centre in White City is the main ticketed public event. Individual tickets are available through the festival’s official ticketing page at tickets.games.london. With the exhibition space doubling in 2026, capacity is significantly greater than in previous years. Popular sessions and peak entry slots do sell out in advance, so booking before arriving in London is the practical approach.
For professionals attending the full week of industry events, the All Access Pass is priced at £299 plus VAT. It covers the Self-Publishing Toolkit Live Sessions, the Games For Change London Summit, Screen Play, and New Game Plus, along with access to the industry networking evening on 14 April, the Screen Play networking reception, the New Game Plus industry lounge, and the festival’s meeting system for pre-scheduled introductions. Individual tickets for specific industry events are also available for those who do not need the full programme.
All tickets are available at tickets.games.london. For full event details and applications, the festival’s central hub is festival.games.london.
London Games Festival 2026 is, at its simplest, the most complete picture of the games industry that London assembles in one place each year. Across seven days and six venues, it serves a player who wants to try something new before it launches, a developer who needs a credible room in which to make a pitch, an investor looking for the next significant studio, and a family spending an afternoon discovering that games culture is broader and more varied than any single title suggests.
The eleventh edition arrives with more funding, a larger venue, and a clearer sense of what it is for. London is already the largest games cluster in Europe. For one week in April, that fact becomes something you can walk through, attend, and be part of. The free events make it accessible to everyone. The industry programme makes it commercially significant for those who need it to be. Both things are true at the same time, which is what makes the festival worth the planning it requires.
Plan the week properly. Book transport early. Know which events are yours before you arrive. The rest takes care of itself.
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