Show co-organizers ReedPop and Penny Arcade revealed PAX Unplugged Houston, the fifth in their series of annual international PAX expos.
It’s also the second tabletop-focused Unplugged event. The new showcase debuts at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas, from Friday, June 25, through Sunday, June 27, 2027.
PAX Unplugged Houston will provide a second destination for card and board gaming enthusiasts to celebrate their shared passions. The show will host a big expo floor featuring the biggest exhibitors in analog gaming, panels with industry experts and content creators, tournaments, community meetups, and other activities to bring the PAX community together. Further details will be revealed in the lead-up to the event.
“Whenever we get done with PAX Unplugged out in Philly, I just want to rewind time and do it all again,” said Jerry Holkins, cofounder of PAX, Penny Arcade and Child’s Play Charity, in a statement. “This is the next best thing. And it’ll be great to see our old friends from down that way.”
Badges for PAX Unplugged Houston go on sale later this year. Applications for media and content creators will also open before the end of the year.
PAX, or Penny Arcade Expo, is a festival for gamers to celebrate gaming culture. First held in Seattle in 2004, PAX has nearly doubled in size each successive year, with PAX Prime 2014 selling out of tickets in a matter of minutes. Connecting the world’s leading game publishers with their most avid and influential fans, PAX expanded with a second show in Boston in 2010, and a third in San Antonio in 2015, making it the three largest gaming shows in North America.
The first international PAX was held in Melbourne, Australia in 2013. In 2017, Penny Arcade established PAX Unplugged, its first tabletop-focused show, held in Philadelphia.
ReedPop is a boutique group within RX – a big event organizer. Launched in 2006, the group has become the number one producer of pop culture events globally and a full-service digital content provider and media company. Delivering once-in-a-lifetime fan experiences curated specifically for localized audiences, ReedPop currently features events in North America, Europe and Asia, including New York Comic Con (NYCC), Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2), PAX West, East, and Unplugged, Emerald City Comic Con (ECCC), Star Wars Celebration, MCM Comic Con, Eurogamer Expo (EGX), MagicCon, and more.
In addition to organizing and managing events, ReedPop owns and operates the pop culture news site, Popverse, which is the exclusive home for livestreams from all of ReedPop’s major comic cons. The staff at ReedPop are a fan-based group of professionals uniquely qualified to build and serve the communities with whom they share a common passion.
Penny Arcade has been the world’s most popular webcomic for over 20 years, with over 3.5 million readers. Started in 1998 in the living room of Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, it has grown into a media empire encompassing multiple beloved properties such as Lookouts, Automata, and beloved D&D live-play series Acquisitions Incorporated.
Penny Arcade was responsible for the creation of Child’s Play, a gaming charity that has raised over $45 million dollars for children across the world. They are also the founders of PAX, the number one consumer gaming festival in North America, with hundreds of thousands of loyal visitors every year.
Sean Gonzalez, ReedPop’s Event Manager for PAX, responded to our questions about the announcement in a written message. I asked why Houston was appealing, given the presence of stronger gaming cities.
“When we were investigating the feasibility of another PAX Unplugged, we considered a number of major cities that also have a significant tabletop audience,” Gonzalez said. “We also have strong demand from fans that miss PAX South, so returning to the region was always on our mind. After comparing multiple options, Houston not only was the best place to launch a second Unplugged, but it was a chance to bring PAX back to the community that missed us.”
Asked about the criteria, Gonzalez said, “We have a number of factors that we considered as we did our market research for where to host a second PAX Unplugged, such as supporting city infrastructure, demographics that strongly align with the tabletop audience, as well as additional data and findings from other ReedPop events. Most importantly though, Houston is where exhibitors wanted us to place the event.”
As for the planning, he said it was important for the organizers to first see how PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia was received, and whether there was enough interest from the tabletop community.
The last new PAX iteration was PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia, which took place in November 2017. As tabletop gaming continues to grow, so does the demand for tabletop at all PAX events, including requests from exhibitors and attendees for another analog-dedicated PAX.
“Seeing how much Unplugged has thrived since 2017, it felt like the right time to think about how we could expand and provide another option to our passionate fans,” he said.
I asked about the state of the economy too.
“While we know that the current state of the economy impacts everyone, we are extremely confident based on the tremendous success we continue to see with the PAX events, particularly our Philadelphia PAX Unplugged, that the market will support PAX Unplugged Houston,” Gonzalez said.