Cologne is once again welcoming visitors from all over the world to Gamescom 2024, briefly becoming the navel of the worldwide industry. As you might expect from an exhibition like this one, it draws hundreds of thousands of attendees over the course of just a few days, leading Koelnmesse – the area where the event takes place – to get filled up rapidly.
That’s not much of a problem if you’re simply there to go with the flow or have enough time to check everything out at leisure – but if your time is limited or you already have games in mind that you want to check out no matter the cost, then doing some planning might come in handy.
One of the most important decisions when it comes to getting anywhere quickly at Gamescom will be where to enter Koelnmesse – as mentioned, the area is huge and the hallways get filled quickly, bringing traffic down to snail’s pace. If you can circumnavigate much of that traffic, you’ll have won half the battle.
Koelnmesse has a total of four entrances to offer: Eingang Süd, Eingang Nord, Eingang Ost, and Eingang West – that’s Entrance South, North, East, and West respectively.
Eingang Süd / Entrance South
Anyone coming to Koelnmesse by railway will end up closest to Eingang Süd. For any journalists or other industry members visiting the event, this is a solid pick – it’s not far to the Business Area and you can easily get back to the train station from here.
If you’re a regular visitor, this entrance is less great – it’s a pretty far walk to the halls making up the Entertainment Area from here, so you’ll be stuck in the foot traffic for a long time. You’ll need to keep in mind that Eingang Süd may be closed off in case too many people try to enter here – in that case, you’ll be asked to go to Eingang Ost instead, which is pretty much just around the corner.
Eingang Ost / Entrance East
If you’re staying somewhere in Cologne with access to the train lines 3, 4, or 14, then you can take a train that takes you right to Eingang Ost. This one is great for any type of visitor, allowing you relatively quick access to both the Business or Entertainment Areas. You can also get to common places of business like Dorint Hotel from here, so mark this one down, colleagues.
Most people will go to Eingang Süd or Nord first, so you may make a quicker entrance from here – that’s as long as visitors from other areas aren’t guided here to ease the pressure somewhere else.
Eingang Nord / Entrance North
Eingang Nord is offering the shortest route to the Entertainment Area, where all the big studios are showing off their games and offering hands-on sessions to the public – however, that’s not exactly a secret, so expect traffic here to be massive. It may be the shortest way to get inside, though more often than not it’s not the quickest one.
Lots of people will arrive there way before the official opening time in order to secure a quick start into the hall beyond – and that’s probably the most reliable way to make sure you get to play what you want to play without getting caught in massive queues.
This is also the entrance you’ll want to use if you’ve bought tickets for Opening Night Live 2024, as it’s the entrance closest to Hall 8, where the show takes place.
Eingang West / Entrance West
Eingang West is the best entrance to use for journalists and everyone else who needs to enter the Business Area. There will be less traffic from regular visitors here and it offers the shortest route to Halls 2, 3, and 4 aside from Eingang Süd. The disadvantage is that you’ll need to do a little walking if you’re not coming by car.
Participants of Devcom and Gamescom Congress should take this one as well.
There is always going to be some waiting time if you’re a regular visitor, but we hope that this short overview will make things a little easier. Please make sure to always follow the security personnel’s orders and be mindful of fellow visitors – everyone’s there to have a good time.
You can find a list of all Gamescom 2024 partners with their locations on the official website.
