ChinaJoy 2026 Shanghai: Dates, Venue & Tickets

Why go

ChinaJoy is one of Asia’s largest digital entertainment expos, covering console and PC gaming, mobile games, esports, animation, cosplay, VR/AR, and increasingly AI-driven entertainment tech. It draws major domestic publishers (Tencent, NetEase, miHoYo have historically had a presence) alongside international hardware brands, peripheral makers, and streaming platforms. For industry visitors it’s a dense few days of business meetings and product reveals; for the public segment it’s a spectacle of elaborate booths, playable demos, merchandise, and one of the world’s most photographed cosplay scenes.

For anyone interested in either the business side of China’s gaming industry or the scale of Chinese fan culture up close, this is the single best annual showcase for it.

Getting there

ChinaJoy has for years been held at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (NECC) in Shanghai’s Hongqiao area, one of the largest exhibition venues in the world, and the 2026 edition was set for the same site. The NECC sits near Hongqiao Transportation Hub, which combines Hongqiao Railway Station (high-speed rail) and Hongqiao International Airport (domestic and some international flights), making it easy to reach directly from other Chinese cities or connect onward.

Metro Line 2 and Line 10 both serve Hongqiao Railway Station/Hongqiao Airport Terminal 2 stations, with the exhibition center a further shuttle or short taxi ride away during major events — organizers typically run shuttle buses from the transport hub on show days. For international arrivals, Pudong International Airport is the other option, roughly 1.5–2 hours from Hongqiao by metro or maglev-plus-transfer.

What to expect on-site

Historically ChinaJoy splits into a B2B (trade) area for industry professionals and a B2C (public) area for general ticket holders, often with separate ticketing, separate hours, and sometimes separate days or halls. Queues at popular publisher booths run longest in the mornings, cosplay photography clusters around entrances and side halls (the quietest shots come early), and exclusive merchandise and figures move fast, with a strong secondary market forming around them.

Booth demo lines for high-profile new game titles are typically the single biggest time sink, and the queues for a specific game or panel usually form well before the hall opens.

When to go

The 2026 dates were July 31 through August 3, a Friday through Monday span, following the format of past years in which trade and business activity sits early in the run and public days fall toward the weekend. Shanghai in late July/early August is hot and humid (routinely in the low-to-mid 30s°C with high humidity), so the mix of outdoor queuing and crowded halls is physically demanding, and food and drink inside the exhibition center cost more than average local rates.

Nearby & tips

Hongqiao itself isn’t a tourist district, but it’s well connected by metro to central Shanghai attractions like the former French Concession, Jing’an Temple, and the Bund, all reachable within 30–45 minutes, which makes it feasible to combine ChinaJoy days with sightseeing days rather than staying purely event-focused. Hotels near Hongqiao Hub fill up fast and prices spike during the expo window.

Venue, hall assignments, ticket categories, and exact opening hours can shift from the historical pattern from year to year. The official ChinaJoy website, along with the official app and WeChat account, is where venue details, ticket purchase channels, and the day-by-day schedule appear.