Expansion to more cities

In 2010, Penny Arcade mounted PAX East, its first event outside of Seattle. Held at Boston's Hynes Convention Center from March 26–28, 2010, PAX East drew 52,290—not much fewer than the Seattle event, newly dubbed PAX Prime, which drew 67,600 attendees in 2010. PAX East moved to Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in 2011; a 2012 agreement cemented Boston as the home of PAX East until 2023.^[5]

2013 marked PAX's first international event: PAX Australia 2013, held July 19–21, 2013, at the Melbourne Showgrounds. The following year, it moved to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, where it remained until at least 2022.^[6]

The first PAX South was held in San Antonio, Texas, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center on January 23–25, 2015. It set a PAX record for highest attendance for an inaugural year.^[7] But the event saw little growth in later years, and was cancelled in October 2021.^[8]

Specialty events

From 2011 until 2020, Penny Arcade held PAX Dev, an annual event meant to allow the game developer community to "speak freely and focus entirely on their trade".^[9] Unlike other game-developer events like GDC, PAX Dev did not allow press. 750 people attended in 2011.

At PAX South 2017, Penny Arcade and ReedPop announced that a new event type, PAX Unplugged, would be held on November 17–19, 2017, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. The event focused on tabletop games, a type that was only incidental in other PAXes.^[10]

Name of PAX in Seattle

PAX was originally known as the "Penny Arcade Expo", but quickly became known by its acronym "PAX". Seattle's PAX was renamed PAX Prime in 2010 and PAX West in 2015.^[11]

The Omegathon

Each PAX features an event called the "Omegathon", a festival-long tournament consisting of a group of randomly selected attendees competing in a game bracket for a grand prize (which has varied from a large game bundle, to a trip to Japan, to a trip to any PAX in the world). The final round of the Omegathon makes up part of the closing ceremonies of PAX. Past games for the final round of the Omegathon have included Tetris, Pong, Halo 3, and skee-ball.

Enforcers

Early PAXes were largely run by a large group of volunteers, which the show calls "Enforcers". Now a paid role, most Enforcers are still not professional conference organizers or temps, but rather selected from an application available to attendees on the PAX website.^[13]

Active PAX Events

• 
  PAX West (Formerly PAX Prime) has been held annually in Seattle, Washington, United States, since 2004.
• 
  PAX East has been held annually in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, since 2010.
• 
  PAX Aus has been held annually in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, since 2013.
• 
  PAX Unplugged has been held annually in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, since 2017.

Former PAX Events

• 
  PAX South was held annually in San Antonio, Texas, United States, between 2015 and 2020.
• 
  PAX Dev was held annually in Seattle, Washington, United States, between 2011 and 2019.
• 
  PAX Online was held virtually between 2020 and 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Timeline of PAX Events