2026 DATES SET FOR EXPANDED LONDON GAMES FESTIVAL

London Games Festival runs Monday 13 April to Sunday 19 April. Significant boost to core Festival programming includes expansion of Games Finance Market and move to bigger venue for New Game Plus. Applications now open for game submissions and more.

 

London Games Festival’s core events will significantly expand in 2026 - providing more ways to showcase games to the public and more business opportunities for professionals. 

 

LGF 2026 will run for its eleventh edition in 2026, taking place from Monday 13 April to Sunday 19 April. London Games Festival is supported by the Mayor of London and delivered by Games London, an initiative from Film London. From 2026 the event will also welcome extended support from the UK Government, as announced earlier in the year as part of the Modern Industrial Strategy. 

 

This additional funding will allow the festival to increase the opportunities at its key events, and create an additional £30m worth of investment back into the games industry every year. London is already the biggest games cluster in Europe, home to over hundreds of games businesses, and a workforce over 13,000. Since it started in 2016, Games London has helped facilitate £110m worth of completed deals and software sales for games studios, which has led to the creation of 900 jobs.

 

London Games Festival expanded events and activity next year include:

 

• Games Finance Market, Tuesday 14 April & Wednesday 15 April - The festival’s central B2B event will maintain its core of hundreds of high-quality, curated studio-to-investor pitch meetings but will add additional strands for codevelopment and self-published games 
• New Game Plus, Thursday 16 April & Friday 17 April - The new consumer expo delivered by London Games Festival will move to a new venue - Exhibition in White City - doubling its exhibition space to house a wider selection of games, and provide access to thousands more attendees
• Plus the festival’s respected Official Selection – which has proudly championed indie hits like Dredge, Schim and Thank Goodness You’re Here over the years – will also add ways for experimental games artists to submit their works 

 

Justine Simons OBE, Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries, said: “It’s great news that the London Games Festival will return bigger and better than ever before next year. For over a decade it has grown from strength to strength, successfully drawing crowds from all over the world to visit and do business in London. Its expansion and move to a bigger venue, shows its significance and confirms London’s position as a world leading gaming capital, as we continue to build a better London for everyone.” ​ 

 

Ian Murray, Creative Industries Minister said:: “Video games are a thriving part of our creative industries, which the Government is backing by increasing investment in these sectors from £17 billion to £31 billion by 2035 as part of the Creative Industries Sector Plan. The London Games Festival is a fantastic celebration of the talent that the UK’s gaming industry has, from cutting edge visual designers, innovative developers and more.”

 

Adrian Wootton OBE, CEO of Film London and the British Film Commission added: “London Games Festival 2026 represents a new chapter for this city-wide celebration of games as the event’s core programmes expand further, thanks to renewed support from the Mayor of London and now additional new funding from UK Government. Games London’s efforts to support the capital’s vibrant ecosystem of games creatives and share that success with the rest of the UK continues to pay off, as shown by the festival’s growth in visitor numbers from beyond London in 2025 – a trend we expect to see continue next year.” 

 

Applications are now open for industry to submit games and express interest for all of the above plus nominate people for Ensemble, LGF’s acclaimed annual celebration of games creatives from Black, Asian and underrepresented ethnicities. 

 

All application links can be found at https://festival.games.london

 

Meanwhile, other key events return to the schedule including a dedicated VIP networking day for UK and international games professionals and visiting delegations to open the festival – plus the return of Screen Play, the one-day conference looking at connections between the screen industries of games, film and TV (taking place Wednesday 15 April at BFI Southbank). 

 

Applications have also opened for Side Events, a wide range of activities run by partners, community groups and games companies that will also underpin the main schedule.

 

The BAFTA Games Awards have also been recently dated for Friday 17 April with nomination submissions now open.

 

Additional LGF details will be announced in the months ahead including ticket on sale dates, reduced rates and access plans for regional clusters, plus an additional series of experimental games events designed to continue the legacy of Now Play This, which was a regular fixture in the festival over the last 10 years. 

 

London Games Festival celebrated its 10th anniversary edition this past April. 102,000 people overall visited LGF 2025’s 26 different events, including 5,000 industry visitors representing 31 countries. Across Side Events and ticketed activity run directly by Games London 48% of 2025 visitors were from outside of London (39% London, 14% International).

 

For regular updates from London Games Festival and Games London, sign up for the weekly newsletter at www.games.london or follow @londongamesfest. For partnership enquiries contact partnerships@games.london
 

 

About Games London

 

Games London is a groundbreaking programme delivered by Film London, the capital’s screen industries agency, and UK games industry trade body Ukie. The project is backed by the Mayor of London with funding worth of £1m+ over three years. 

 

The Games London programme includes a number of initiatives to make London the games capital of the world. It re-established the London Games Festival in April 2016. Other areas of activity include inbound and outbound trade missions and work connecting and supporting games development skills in London.