Three numbers explain the 2025 to 2026 transition.

CES grew four percent. MWC shrank four percent. Canton Fair set an all-time record. The shows did not converge on a common trajectory; they diverged sharply along structural lines.

The variance matters because it is not random. The exhibitions that compounded into 2026 are doing something structurally different from the ones that did not. The difference is visible in their operating model rather than their marketing budget. This is a field guide to those differences, drawn from the audited attendance reports of the shows that defined 2025 and the first half of 2026.

The three currencies that determine which shows compound

There are exactly three currencies in the exhibition economy, and most shows that struggle do so because they try to operate in all three at once instead of dominating one.

Every large exhibition is dominant in at least one of three currencies. The shows that compounded into 2026 are the ones that doubled down on the currency they already owned. The shows that contracted tried to be three things at once.

Buyer density is concentrated commercial intent in one room. Procurement-led shows live on this currency. Canton Fair is the cleanest example: a procurement engine where 314,000 international buyers sourced from 32,000 exhibitors across 1.55 million square metres. The Canton Fair is not optimised for media moments or cultural gravity. It is optimised for export transactions, and it sets attendance records by being explicit about that.

Attention is press, creators, social reach, and cultural oxygen. Attention-led shows trade on the fact that being announced at the event matters more than what happens inside the hall. CES is the canonical example. Its 4% growth in 2026 was driven by AI-track attendance climbing 22% year over year and robotics-track attendance climbing 26%. Brands attend not to sell on the floor but to be in the conversation for the following twelve months of partnerships, investment, and distribution.

Transaction velocity is the speed at which attention converts to spend on site. Consumer culture festivals own this currency. ComplexCon Las Vegas hit a record 70,000 attendees in October 2025 and structured the entire event around limited drops, scarcity programming, and floor-level commerce. The hall is buyable. That is the product.

The shows that struggled in the 2025 to 2026 transition were the ones that did not pick a lane. Generalist shows that tried to be marketplaces and media platforms and cultural festivals at the same time saw attendance plateau or contract, while specialists in one of the three currencies kept growing.

The 2025 to 2026 field guide

Seven shows, ordered by what they teach exhibition organisers rather than by attendance. The numbers below are drawn from each show's official audit, organising body press release, or government-issued report, with sources cited at the end of this article. Where 2026 editions have not yet taken place, the most recent verified data is the 2025 number.

1) CES 2026: the attention engine that kept growing

Where: Las Vegas
When: 6 to 9 January 2026
Why it matters: product narrative, partnership gravity, media oxygen

CES 2026 reported 148,392 audited participants, a 4% lift over 142,465 at CES 2025. The audit, conducted to UFI standards by the Consumer Technology Association, recorded 4,100-plus exhibitors across 2.6 million net square feet, with 55,841 international participants (37.6% of total) from 141 countries.

The compositional shift is the more interesting story. AI-track attendance rose 22% year over year to 39,929. Robotics-track attendance rose 26% to 19,605. Senior-level executives accounted for 52% of total attendees. Fortune 500 representation was 307 companies. The show is not just larger in 2026; it is more concentrated at the decision-making layer.

148,392

Audited attendees at CES 2026 (+4% year over year)

Source: CTA CES 2026 Attendance Audit Summary, March 2026

What organisers can take from CES. Treat the show as a media instrument rather than a venue. Programme stages, announcements, and reveal moments as deliberately as floor plans. The compounding effect of CES is not the booths; it is the year-round narrative that the show generates.

What exhibitors can take from CES. If a booth cannot win the largest-footprint game, it should win the demo-density and message-clarity game. CES is a press event with a trade show attached. A booth without a press plan is paying full price for half the value.

2) Canton Fair 139th session: buyer density at industrial scale

Where: Guangzhou
When: 15 April to 5 May 2026 (three phases, 15 trading days)
Why it matters: global sourcing at procurement scale

The 139th Canton Fair drew a record 314,000 overseas buyers from 220 countries and regions, up 1.1% year over year. The fair occupied approximately 1.55 million square metres with 75,700 booths, hosting more than 32,000 exhibitors including about 3,900 first-time exhibitors. The opening phase alone attracted 167,000 buyers, the highest first-phase figure in the fair's history.

For context, the 137th session in spring 2025 hosted 288,938 international buyers, meaning the buyer base grew by approximately 25,000 attendees in a single year despite a global trade environment that everyone agrees is becoming harder, not easier.

314,000

Verified overseas buyers at Canton Fair 139th session (+1.1% YoY)

Source: China Foreign Trade Centre / Ministry of Commerce, May 2026

What organisers can take from Canton Fair. Phasing beats sprawl. When categories grow, the answer is not more halls running concurrently; it is structured sequencing so buyers can source efficiently across phases. The Canton Fair runs a three-phase calendar that has not changed structurally in years, and the consistency is part of why buyers can plan their entire year around it.

What exhibitors can take from Canton Fair. At a procurement-led show, the booth is a sales-operations node, not a marketing surface. Pricing sheets, MOQ clarity, sampling readiness, lead-capture discipline, and a post-show quoting workflow do more for revenue than the visual treatment of the stand.

3) MWC26 Barcelona: the ecosystem show that contracted

Where: Barcelona
When: 2 to 5 March 2026
Why it matters: the first year-over-year decline among the major global flagships

MWC26 welcomed approximately 105,000 attendees from 207 countries and territories, with 2,900 exhibitors and over 1,700 speakers. The number is roughly 4% lower than the 109,000 GSMA reported for MWC25. C-suite attendees represented 17% of total attendance; 45% were director-level or above; 58% represented industries adjacent to the core mobile ecosystem.

The 4YFN startup zone, co-located in Hall 8, hosted over 1,000 exhibitors and over 300 speakers, with investor funds totalling a reported $70 billion. The GSMA Ministerial Programme convened 188 delegations, 54 ministers, and 118 heads of regulatory authorities. Talent Arena, the AI-focused programming track, drew over 25,000 attendees.

The decline matters less than what it signals. MWC remains the most ecosystem-rich event in connectivity, but anchor exhibitors trimming footprints (reported reductions from major OEMs in the lead-up to MWC26) suggest the marginal cost of attending is being scrutinised more rigorously, even at a flagship.

105,000

Attendees at MWC26 Barcelona, approximately 4% lower than MWC25's 109,000

Source: GSMA MWC26 closing press release, March 2026

What organisers can take from MWC. Ecosystem shows resist contraction by adding on-ramps rather than expanding footprint. 4YFN, Talent Arena, the Ministerial Programme, and 4YFN's investor track are structurally separate products inside the same show. When the core event softens, the adjacent products keep the show defensible.

What creators can take from MWC. Ecosystem shows are content factories for analysts with a defined beat. The creators who extracted value from MWC26 came with a specific lens (private 5G, on-device AI, device supply chain) and a daily capture plan. Generalist coverage produced generalist output.

4) gamescom 2025 (with 2026 preview): the dual B2B and B2C model

Where: Cologne
When: 19 to 23 August 2025 (latest verified edition); gamescom 2026 scheduled 26 to 30 August 2026
Why it matters: dual revenue streams plus global cultural gravity

gamescom 2025 reported more than 360,000 visitors and 1,500-plus exhibitors from over 60 countries, according to game.de's official press release. The dual-mode structure (business days for trade visitors, public days for fans) remained intact, with the show explicitly separating the two audiences through differentiated ticketing and access levels.

The 2026 edition has not yet taken place, but Koelnmesse and game reported a 15% year-over-year lift in exhibitor registrations during the early-bird window, with participation from over 40 nations. The exhibitor signal is positive ahead of the August 2026 dates.

+15%

Year-over-year lift in early-bird exhibitor registrations for gamescom 2026, versus the 2025 edition's 360,000-plus visitors

Source: Koelnmesse / game press release; game.de 2025 recap

What organisers can take from gamescom. B2B versus B2C is a false binary at scale. The show splits the same venue into two distinct modes with different access rights, schedules, and commercial structures. Ticketing and access tiers are not administrative; they are the product architecture.

What exhibitors can take from gamescom. Two-mode shows require two booth scripts. One for partners and buyers during business days, one for fans and audiences during public days. Most exhibitors fail at this because they train staff for one mode and assume it transfers.

5) ChinaJoy 2025: culture as commerce at scale

Where: Shanghai
When: 25 to 28 July 2025 (latest verified edition); 2026 edition typically July or August
Why it matters: digital entertainment as an economic engine

ChinaJoy 2025 drew a reported 410,300 visitors, up from 367,000 in 2024, according to Yicai Global. Foreign visitors numbered approximately 14,700. The show sits at the intersection of gaming, animation, and platform culture, functioning less as a convention and more as a commerce mechanism for entire IP ecosystems.

The 2026 ChinaJoy edition has not yet taken place at the time of writing. The 2025 figures remain the most recent verified attendance.

410,300

Visitors at ChinaJoy 2025, up from 367,000 in 2024

Source: Yicai Global, August 2025

What organisers can take from ChinaJoy. Culture-led shows are programmed for participation, not observation. Cosplay competitions, playable demos, creator meet-ups, and live stages are not adjacencies; they are the primary product. The booth is the secondary product.

What creators can take from ChinaJoy. A 410,300-person hall is a studio if it is treated like one. Repeatable capture formats (three-question interviews, daily recap loops, fixed interview spots) produce more usable content than wandering with a camera and hoping for moments.

6) San Diego Comic-Con 2025: scarcity as strategy

Where: San Diego
When: 24 to 27 July 2025 (latest verified edition); SDCC 2026 scheduled 23 to 26 July 2026
Why it matters: controlled supply equals durable demand

San Diego Comic-Con 2025 drew approximately 135,000 attendees across its four-day run, with the San Diego Tourism Authority projecting a regional economic impact of more than $160 million. Direct attendee spending was estimated at $96.8 million, with the City of San Diego reporting approximately $3.2 million in expected tax revenue.

The attendance figure has held in the 130,000 to 135,000 range for several years. The cap is the model. Comic-Con does not maximise attendance; it maximises intensity, and the show's enduring cultural relevance is partly a function of the fact that getting a badge is hard.

$160M+

Regional economic impact projected for San Diego Comic-Con 2025 (approximately 135,000 attendees)

Source: City of San Diego / San Diego Tourism Authority, July 2025

What organisers can take from Comic-Con. Infinite growth is not the only growth model. Finite intensity, deliberately maintained, builds a show that is harder to replace than a show that is larger. The strategic question is not "How do we get bigger?" but "What makes us irreplaceable at our current size?"

7) ComplexCon 2025 Las Vegas: the commerce festival

Where: Las Vegas
When: 25 to 26 October 2025
Why it matters: limited drops, culture programming, and floor-level transaction velocity

ComplexCon Las Vegas 2025 drew 70,000 attendees, the largest in event history, with over 400 brands across fashion, art, food, and innovation. The 2024 Las Vegas edition reported approximately $27 million in on-site sales from 30,000 attendees; the 2025 on-site sales figure has not been published as of May 2026.

ComplexCon's innovation is the structural one: design the hall to be buyable. The show is built around scarcity drops, cultural programming, and the kind of payment, queueing, and inventory infrastructure that consumer-festival commerce requires. The pattern matters beyond ComplexCon itself, because the economics of commerce-led shows determine which platforms, which fee structures, and which data-ownership models are viable for organisers running this kind of event.

70,000

Record attendance at ComplexCon Las Vegas 2025 (more than double the 30,000 at the 2024 debut)

Source: PRNewswire ComplexCon press releases, October 2024 and October 2025

What organisers can take from ComplexCon. For consumer-forward audiences, the show is the transaction layer, not a brand-awareness exercise. Payment redundancy, inventory protection, queue design, authentication, and entry flow are not operational details; they are the experience.

What exhibitors can take from ComplexCon. Drop operations need to be planned like logistics. Staffing depth, queue management, payment failover, and stock protection determine whether the booth generates the sales it could.

What the year-over-year numbers tell us

Three patterns emerge when the audited figures are compared side by side.

The shows specialised in a single currency grew. CES grew on attention. Canton Fair grew on buyer density. ComplexCon grew on transaction velocity. Each doubled down on the thing it already did better than anyone else, and the year-over-year numbers reflect that focus.

The most diversified show contracted. MWC, which has historically tried to be all three (ecosystem network, attention engine, and government convening platform), declined approximately 4% year over year. The decline is small, but the direction matters. When marginal cost of attendance is being scrutinised, the show that is good at three things is easier to cut than the show that is essential for one.

The exhibitor side is moving earlier than the attendee side. gamescom's 15% lift in early-bird exhibitor registrations for 2026 is a leading indicator, not a lagging one. As the 2026 Wiktis industry report documents, exhibitors are making commitment decisions 8 to 12 weeks earlier than the pre-2019 baseline, partly because staffing and logistics costs require longer planning windows. Shows that surface their registration pipeline early are easier for exhibitors to commit to.

The structural backdrop matters. Exhibitors in 2026 are scrutinising audience quality, per-show ROI, and renewal economics more rigorously than at any point since 2019. The shows that grew in 2025 to 2026 are the ones whose value proposition is clear, evidence-led, and difficult to replicate with a webinar or a paid-media campaign.

What organisers should take from the 2025 to 2026 data

Three operating questions follow from the year-over-year analysis.

Which currency does the show own? Buyer density, attention, or transaction velocity. The answer should be one of those three, with the other two as adjacencies. Shows that cannot answer the currency question end up under-investing in the thing they are already best at and over-investing in features that do not change the renewal conversation.

Where does the show's data live? Audited attendance is the floor, not the ceiling. The shows that compounded in 2025 to 2026 know who attended, what they did on the floor, which exhibitors they engaged with, and what happened afterwards. That dataset is what makes per-exhibitor renewal conversations possible. Shows that cannot produce that data are negotiating renewals on testimonials, which works until the exhibitor's CFO asks for evidence.

What is the operational truth that lives outside spreadsheets? Floor plan, booth allocation, exhibitor CRM, sponsorship inventory, and post-show financial reconciliation are operating systems, not files. The shows that scaled cleanly in 2025 to 2026 are the ones that moved this operational truth out of individual heads and shared documents and into systems that survive staff turnover.

What exhibitors should take from the 2025 to 2026 data

The shift in exhibitor economics is the more durable story.

Booth purchases are increasingly evaluated against measurable outcomes rather than reach. Procurement meetings booked. Partner conversations scheduled. Content captured and packaged. Quotes issued during and after the show. Pipeline created and tracked through to close. If those outcomes are not measurable, the spend is unjustifiable to the finance function regardless of how the show is performing.

The exhibitors who got the most out of CES 2026, Canton Fair 139th, and MWC26 are the ones who built the booth around a specific outcome set and instrumented the outcomes. Lead capture that flows into a CRM. Demonstrations scheduled into appointment slots. Press conversations slotted around stage moments. The decision to attend should be the start of the operational plan, not the end.

What creators should take from the 2025 to 2026 data

Conventions are distribution engines for creators who treat them as work, and a noise floor for creators who do not.

A defined beat is the difference. AI in telecom at MWC. Robotics retail at CES. Indie publisher coverage at gamescom. Drop culture at ComplexCon. The creators who came out of the 2025 to 2026 cycle with audience growth and partnership offers had a single beat and a capture plan that fed it daily. Creators who covered the show as a generalist produced generalist output and competed with everyone else doing the same.

The post-show packaging matters as much as the on-floor coverage. A daily recap, a weekly long-form analysis, and a single high-effort piece released two weeks after the show form the loop that compounds. Without the loop, the floor footage is a depreciating asset by the end of the month.

Where Wiktis fits in this analysis

Wiktis is an exhibition management platform, not a ticketing company. The shows in this guide compounded into 2026 because they treated themselves as operating systems rather than annual events. The Wiktis architecture is designed for organisers who want to do the same: booth sales, exhibitor CRM, floor plan management, sponsorship inventory, ticket and registration commerce, and post-show financial reporting in one workspace.

The economic model is described in detail on the Wiktis pricing page. The relevant point for this analysis is that platform fees do not scale with the organiser's success: the platform charges $0 in transaction fees, the organiser connects their own Stripe account, and the rest of the economic upside accrues to the show, not the software.

Whether the model fits a particular show depends on the same questions the year-over-year data raises. Which currency does the show own. Where the operational truth lives. Whether the data layer can answer the renewal conversation. The shows that grew in 2025 to 2026 are the ones that already have clear answers to those questions. The shows that contracted are the ones still working them out.

FROM WIKTIS

The shows that compound in 2027 are already operating differently in 2026. Wiktis is the operating system for exhibitions that treat themselves as ongoing operations, not annual events. Zero platform fees. Built for independent organisers.

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Anna Keshet is an industry analyst covering the exhibition and trade show economy. She has researched ticketing models, exhibitor economics, and global show performance for Wiktis since 2024.

References

CTA, "CES 2026 Audit Shows Four Percent Growth in Participation" (press release, 31 March 2026). ces.tech press release
CTA, "CES 2026 Attendance Audit Summary" (PDF). ces.tech audit summary
CTA, "CES 2025 Audit Reveals Growing Attendance from Executives, Investors, and Media" (press release). ces.tech 2025 audit
GSMA, "GSMA MWC26 Barcelona Closes 20th Anniversary Edition" (press release, 6 March 2026). gsma.com newsroom
GSMA, "GSMA Celebrates a Resoundingly Successful MWC25 Barcelona" (press release, March 2025). mwcbarcelona.com
China Foreign Trade Centre / Ministry of Commerce, 139th Canton Fair closing data (May 2026), reported via Macao News. macaonews.org
Canton Fair 137th Session Summary, Guangzhou government (2025). gz.gov.cn
game.de, "gamescom 2025: more than 360,000 visitors from over 60 countries" (press release, August 2025). game.de press release
Koelnmesse / game, "gamescom 2026 launches ticket sales with outstanding results for exhibitor registrations" (2026). gamespress.com
Yicai Global, "ChinaJoy 2025 attracts record visitors as Chinese gaming industry flourishes" (August 2025). yicaiglobal.com
City of San Diego, "Mayor Gloria, Local Leaders Kick Off Comic-Con 2025" (July 2025). sandiego.gov
KPBS Public Media, "San Diego Comic-Con 2025 expected to bring more than $160M to local economy" (22 July 2025). kpbs.org
PRNewswire, "ComplexCon 2025 Draws Record-Breaking 70,000 Attendees in Las Vegas" (31 October 2025). PRNewswire 2025
PRNewswire, "ComplexCon Las Vegas 2024 Records $27M in On-Site Sales" (2024). PRNewswire 2024
UFI Global Exhibition Barometer (July 2024). ufi.org barometer