Gaming Istanbul (GIST) 2026
Turkey's biggest gaming expo returns to the Istanbul Congress Center from 18 to 20 September 2026, with a public expo floor, an indie zone, esports and a parallel B2B programme.
Gaming Istanbul, better known as GIST, is back at the Istanbul Congress Center in Harbiye from 18 to 20 September 2026. It is the largest gaming event in Turkey and one of the biggest anywhere on the eastern edge of Europe, and it works on two levels at once: a consumer expo floor open to the public and a business track for developers, publishers and investors.
Visitors get the usual convention mix - playable stands from local and international studios, an indie area where smaller teams show work in progress, esports competitions, creator and cosplay content, and hardware and retail zones. The B2B side runs alongside it with talks, a speaker programme and organised matchmaking meetings, which is the part that tends to draw people from the wider region rather than just Turkey.
For a player or a developer from Croatia or the Adria region, GIST is the closest thing to a large-scale gaming show that sits outside the usual Western European circuit, and it is a realistic long weekend trip. Tickets and the full programme are on the official site; check there before travelling, since the schedule for individual halls and stages is published closer to the date.
Image: CeeGee / CC BY-SA 3.0, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Istanbul_Congress_Center.JPG