DreamHack, the major esports event, almost doesn’t sound real when you try to describe it to the uninitiated: A darkened convention center where you watch some of the world’s best gamers compete with each other at every kind of game imaginable while you yourself play games on provided machines. It sounds so dreamlike and, when you’re wandering a convention hall bathed in soft orange light, it can certainly feel dreamlike.
DreamHack Dallas is one of my favorite annual events, in part because I get to sleep in my own bed at the end of each day. It’s been fascinating watching the event grow over time, and in 2024, the event felt like one of the largest I’ve ever seen. This was not hyperbole as I was later informed that the event had over 55,000 attendees, making it the largest DreamHack ever.
One thing I noticed while attending this year’s event was that it felt more expansive than it has in the past. I don’t just mean that the event itself was bigger — though it certainly was — but that the event itself felt like it offered so much more than esports. To be clear, DreamHack hasn’t been an esports-only event for a while, but this year, the percentage of non-esports things to do and see seemed higher.
In addition to DreamHack’s signature LAN party and the mini arcades and player tournaments one could find on the convention floor, there was also the artist area for small art pieces and merchandise and an entire section of the floor for local (to North Texas) indie developers who could show off their games. One entire hall separate from the main convention center was dedicated to tabletop gaming, with a huge Magic: The Gathering tournament occurring the entire weekend.
What goes into making DreamHack happen
I got the chance to speak with Guy Blomberg, the event director for DreamHack’s North American events, for a few minutes (when he wasn’t being pulled in every different direction) about the event and what its growing popularity means for the future. He told me that he credits the multiple different teams who worked on different portions of the events for its success — in particular those who expanded on the developer-friendly and tabletop areas at the event.
“The way I’m approaching it and the way a lot of folks on my team are approaching it is trying things and seeing if the community respond well.” Blomberg said that what works for one DreamHack event might not work for all of them, but they’re willing to try many different things, such as a D&D one-show DMed by Brennan Lee Mulligan. “It’s a combination of growing all the different gaming elements, but also not being afraid to try different things that we think will resonate with the local community, or even work with national community. And if it doesn’t work, then that’s fine. We can try something else.”
Blomberg also spoke about the local gaming community and the addition of the Indie Playground. “I think it’s actually a responsibility of a lot of events and brands that have the resources to prop up the indie developers. I think the indie developers are the heart of our industry. They’re the folks that are slaving away for almost no money for their passions and their dreams. I think they’re the ones that keep the creativity alive in our industry.”
DreamHack held is Summer event in Jönköping, Sweden on June 13-16 — which featured “32,000 gamers, creators and fans from 58 countries” according to ESL Faceit Group — and returns to the U.S. on October 4-6 for DreamHack Atlanta.