Penny Arcade Expo and Reedpop have announced that PAX South has been brought to an end "for the foreseeable future," dashing the hopes of any fans hoping to return to the Texas convention in 2022.
PAX South is one of many shows under the "Penny Arcade Expo" umbrella. We've seen some great games at the show in 2018 and 2020. Unfortunately, the 2021 show was the only one of several PAX events that was explicitly canceled for 2021. Now, it looks like this convention might not be coming back at all.
We have made the difficult decision to bring PAX South to an end for the foreseeable future. See the full statement below: pic.twitter.com/hW8J6wBzxb
— PAX (@pax) October 29, 2021
Why PAX South Has Come to an End
While the pandemic has certainly had an effect on the decision to cancel 2021's show, any future PAX South events are unlikely for a different reason: a lack of growth in attendance.
"While each of our other [PAX] events have flourished, some of them drawing hundreds of thousands of attendees from around the world, PAX South hasn't expanded and to some extent has remained the same show that it was when we opened it in 2015," read a statement on the convention's official website. "Faced with that reality, and compounded by the impact of COVID-19, we have made the difficult decision to bring PAX South to an end for the foreseeable future."
Notably, PAX South was one of only two major gaming-centric conventions held in San Antonio, Texas; the other gaming event in the city is Pokefest SA which takes place on November 5-6, 2021. Other events in the city include Mini-Mini Con and San Japan, the latter of which reported just over 20,000 attendees in 2019.
On the upside, PAX South may not be dead forever -- there's always the possibility that it could be restarted anew at some future point. Do keep in mind, however, that ReedPop has been closing down some events (such as BookExpo and BookCon) over the last year, so it might be a while before PAX South comes back.
Are you disappointed that PAX South has ended? What is your favorite PAX convention? Let us know in the comments below!
