How to watch Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024 and what to expect

The gaming world is descending on Cologne, Germany this week as Europe's largest video games show, Gamescom, kicks off.

The annual show presents a great opportunity to see and play with the latest games and devices that will be coming out prior to Christmas, and the action begins today, Tuesday 20 August with Gamescom Opening Night Live – a presentation event that will feature a tonne of trailers and updates. You can watch it live below.

Here's everything else you need to know about Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024.

What is Gamescom 2024 and when is the Opening Night Live keynote?

Gamescom is an enormous video games show that takes place in August each year. It is held in the Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany and is open to the press, games industry and members of the public.

Major exhibitors include Xbox, Bethesda, Take Two (2K Games) and Ubisoft, but even if you can't attend in person, there's still a way you can keep up with everything that's announced.

That's because Gamescom Opening Night Live event takes place on the eve of the show and you can watch it stream online.

It starts at 20:00 CEST, local time to Germany, today, Tuesday 20 August 2024.

Here are the times for other locations:

• US West Coast: 11:00 PDT
• US East Coast: 14:00 EDT
• UK: 19:00 BST
• Central Europe: 20:00 CEST
• Australia (Sydney): 04:00 AEST (21 August)

How to watch Gamescom ONL 2024

The Gamescom Opening Night Live online stream can be watched via the video at the top of this page.

Alternatively, you will be able to watch it live on The Game Awards' YouTube channel , as it's by the same team as The Game Awards and Summer Game Fest.

What to expect

Gamescom ONL has been going for a few years, including non-person events during the pandemic. It tends to last around two hours.

There will be a tonne of game trailers and announcements, maybe even some surprises. Host Geoff Keighley has already revealed some of the games that'll be featured. They include:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
• Dune Awakening
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
• Marvel Rivals
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• Sid Meier's Civilization VII

There will be plenty more besides, but those are guaranteed to be showcased with new trailers and/or gameplay footage.

We're not expecting any major new hardware during this year's Gamescom, though. So don't expect anything on PlayStation 5 Pro , Nintendo Switch 2 or the Xbox handheld .

You can also watch last year's show below, if you want to get a further feel on what to expect.