PAX Unplugged 2026: Badge Prices, Hours and TCG Events

Buying PAX Unplugged 2026 one day at a time now costs $176.40. The 3-Day badge that covered the same three days was $122.84, and the official ticket shop has it marked SOLD OUT. That $53.56 gap is the first thing to know about the year's big tabletop show in Philadelphia, six weeks out.

The second is a date. On Friday, October 30, at noon Eastern, registration opens for a block of the card game events on the schedule PAX has just published, including every Cyberpunk TCG Night City Showdown and every Gundam Card Game event on it.

Here is what PAX Unplugged 2026 costs, including the new kids badges, when each part of it is open, how event registration works, what is on for the nine card games this site covers, the rules at the door, and where PAX's own pages contradict each other, all read on October 23. There is a second Unplugged on the calendar now, too, in Houston.

The dates, the hours, and the 6 p.m. handover

PAX Unplugged 2026 runs Friday, December 4 to Sunday, December 6 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch Street, Philadelphia. That is later in the year than last year's show, which ran November 21 to 23, 2025. US daylight saving time ends on November 1, so every show time on this page is Eastern Standard Time (EST, UTC-5). The hours, from PAX's homepage and the official ticket shop:

Twelve of the show's 36 hours, a third of it, come after the Expo Hall shuts, all of them on Friday and Saturday night. At a tabletop show that is not dead time. It is freeplay, tournaments and late events, and PAX's Tabletop Freeplay page says many of the vendors in the freeplay area stay open after the Expo Hall closes at 6 p.m.

The schedule also starts before the doors. Of the 850 listings on the official schedule on October 23, 18 begin before 10 a.m., including a First Look Preview Hour from 9 to 10 a.m. on all three days. First Look is PAX's area for buzzy imported games, which its own page says often come straight from SPIEL Essen and Tokyo Game Market before they have US distribution. The listing puts it in the Terrace Ballroom on Level 4, which it calls a new location, although PAX's 2025 entry page already had First Look opening there at 9 a.m. It says the fastest way in is through the Broad Street Atrium, near the corner of Arch and Broad, then straight up the escalators. At the other end of the day, 52 listings run past 11 p.m.

What a badge costs

These are the prices on the official ticket shop on October 23. Every one includes a $5.00 service fee and 5 per cent sales tax, and the tax is charged on the fee too: $50 plus $5 is $55, and 5 per cent on top makes $57.75.

What falls out of that table:

• Two days now cost almost what three did. Friday and Saturday, or Saturday and Sunday, come to $118.65, just $4.19 under the sold-out 3-Day badge. All three single days come to $176.40, about 44 per cent more than the 3-Day price.
• Sunday is the short day at full price. It costs the same $57.75 as Friday for 8 hours instead of 14; the Expo Hall gets the same eight hours on both days. PAX West did the opposite with its short closing day, pricing Monday at $59.85 against $81.90 for Friday on its registration page as archived in August.
• Saturday is $3.15 dearer than Friday for exactly the same hours.

The terms, from the shop and PAX's FAQ:

• Non-refundable and non-upgradeable, the shop says. PAX's FAQ adds that you may trade, gift or sell a badge to friends or family, as long as you do not price gouge.
• Buy from PAX. The FAQ says genuine badges are plastic, not cardboard, with a holographic etching rather than a sticker, and that PAX cannot help if a third-party sale goes wrong.
• The Omegathon is an opt-in box at checkout, per its feature page, and you must be at the show all three days to play. The features page says each Omegathon starts with 20 Omeganauts.
• Merchandise bought through the shop carries 8 per cent sales tax, not 5.

Kids badges are new, and the third day is free

PAX's badge page labels its kids tickets new, and the shop sells four of them, all for ages 7 to 12. Each child must be with a ticket-holding adult.

The kids 3-Day badge costs exactly as much as two kids single days, $52.50 against $26.25 each, so the third day is free; three single days would be $78.75. Children 6 and under get in free with a paid adult, and the shop says to be ready to show proof of age. Put together, two adults and a nine-year-old pay $148.05 for Saturday.

For comparison, PAX West's registration page sold a $59.85 Kids 4-Day badge for the same 7-to-12 age band, and no single-day kids badges.

Every badge bought now is collected in Philadelphia

The mailing deadline was October 15 at 11:59 p.m. Badges bought before it are posted, and the shop says they will not start going out until late October. The FAQ says mailed badges should arrive up to a week before the show, and to email paxquestions@reedexpo.com if yours has not turned up by show week. Anything bought now is collected on site.

The 2026 pickup hours are not published. PAX's "How to get into PAX Unplugged" page is still last year's. It gives badge pickup hours for Thursday 11/20 to Sunday 11/23, which was the 2025 show, next to a warning about Philadelphia Marathon road closures. For what last year's plan is worth, pickup opened a day early, on the Thursday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., in the Broad Street Atrium at the main entrance, 129 N Broad Street, and the Grand Hall entrance at 1111 Market Street was for badge holders only. If PAX repeats the Thursday, take it. It is the same trade we made the case for at Gen Con, where picking up a day early turns the first morning into show time instead of queue time.

The convention center's Broad Street entrance, between Arch and Race Streets. In 2025 this side was PAX Unplugged's main entrance and badge pickup; 2026's entry plan is not out yet. Photo: Beyond My Ken via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Event registration starts October 30, and not in one place

PAX runs some events itself and lets exhibitors run the rest, so the schedule's descriptions send you to a long list of different sign-up routes. For the card games:

PAX's own events go through the PAX Nav app, which opens registration for each day's events at 8:00 a.m. that morning. The FAQ warns that many fill within a minute and allows one registration per device. The app itself is "still being built", due about four weeks before the show. Tournaments, Classic Cardboard and the Deception Zone hand out physical waitlist tickets at 10:00 a.m., and every area keeps a standby queue for no-shows.

About that noon. The listings say "12 PM EST" for October 30. On that date the US East Coast is still on daylight time, EDT, which ends on November 1, while Europe already left summer time on October 25. That week London is four hours ahead of New York, not the usual five. Read as noon in New York:

If PAX literally means EST, it is 1:00 p.m. in New York. Be on the page at noon Eastern and keep refreshing: on October 23, Pro-Play's TopDeck event page still read "Event Not Available". The same October 30 slot opens the Megagames and the Jubensha murder-mystery tables. Limithron's RPG games open on Warhorn on Sunday, November 22 at noon EST, and the Amoirais RPG room's online pre-registration opens November 23.

All nine card games we cover are on the schedule

PAX files 193 listings under TCG Events, and each of this site's nine card game verticals has at least one. The headline events, from the official schedule (all times EST):

Five notes from the listings themselves.

Cyberpunk TCG. This settles a wording question. WeirdCo's convention list promises "Night City Showdown Events (2 Friday and Saturday, 1 Sunday)", which our Cyberpunk convention breakdown flagged as ambiguous. PAX's schedule has two on Friday, two on Saturday and one on Sunday: Sealed from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Constructed from 4 to 10 p.m. on the first two days, then a Sealed from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Sealed hands you six boosters and 30 minutes to build, then up to five best-of-three Swiss rounds, and both formats promise alt-art promos, with a playmat for each Showdown champion. That post has the Misty promo terms, and our Showdown prize breakdown covers the wider prize ladder.

CookieRun: Braverse. The Saturday Regional lines up with the TopDeck Games @ PAX Unplugged stop on Devsisters' Season 3 North America Regionals list, which dates the Regionals to December 5 or 6 depending on the store; our organized play guide covers the full season. PAX's listing puts it on Saturday, December 5, with best-of-one Swiss rounds, and says prizes are still to be announced. You register on site from Friday morning, and you need both a Topdeck.gg account and a CookieRun: Braverse player account.

Magic. The Star Trek championship is a Sealed event on a set that, per MTG Wiki, releases on November 13, three weeks before the show; our Star Trek set guide has the mechanics. Gavin Verhey's Mystery Booster Commander events cost $120 for six boosters, and here is what is in those packs. Several of the Magic listings, the Star Trek championship among them, ask for a Wizards Account and the MTG Companion app.

Lorcana. The Saturday qualifier runs seven best-of-three Swiss rounds and a top 8, with decklists submitted through the Ravensburger Play Hub and a Mother Knows Best promo for every entrant. The listing promises the winner an invite to the "Disney Lorcana Challenge Continental Championship". Our Lorcana Challenge guide explains where qualifiers like this sit in Ravensburger's season. Ravensburger's own Expo Hall entry is about demos of its Rolliverse dice game; the Lorcana events belong to Pastimes.

Naruto. The Naruto game here is NARUTO Mythos TCG, the one you can play now, run by Pro-Play Games. Bandai's NARUTO CARD GAME has nothing on the PAX Unplugged schedule.

The rest of the TCG Zone is busy too. The Flesh and Blood PAX Unplugged Championships are $50, Classic Constructed on Saturday and Silver Age on Sunday, with on-site sign-up. ONE PIECE runs Standard Swiss events at $12 with an OP-18 pack per win. Star Wars: Unlimited's Premier Constructed pods fire every hour and 45 minutes for $10, with a convention-exclusive Darth Vader card for entering. There are Final Fantasy TCG drafts at $35, a free Yu-Gi-Oh! Advanced event, and a "Dead CCGs" Legend of the Five Rings night in Classic Cardboard. If you are coming for Riftbound, our 2026 Riftbound calendar has where PAX Unplugged sits in Riot's year.

Beyond the card tables

Card games are a big slice of the schedule, not most of it. The biggest categories on October 23, leaving out the registration and age tags and the board-game subset of Tournaments, and noting that one listing can carry several tags:

By day, that is 320 listings on Friday, 330 on Saturday and 200 on Sunday. The headliners so far:

• Storytime is Matt Leacock, designer of Pandemic, Pandemic Legacy and Forbidden Island, per PAX's Storytime page. The schedule does not list his session yet. He is also named on Saturday's "These Games Are Not For Sale" panel, 4 to 5 p.m. in the Mothman Theatre, whose designers show their one-off games in the Terrace Ballroom next to First Look.
• The Main Theatre has two listings: Faster, Purple Worm! LIVE, billed as the official D&D TV show, on Friday from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m., and the circus-and-stand-up act Jacques ze Whipper on Sunday at noon.
• Daggerheart: Behind the Scenes, Sunday 12:30 p.m. in the Mothman Theatre, with the Critical Role and Darrington Press team on the Hope & Fear expansion.
• For the card players: the APEX Sleeving Championship, presented by Ultra PRO, Sunday 1:30 to 3 p.m. Eight sleevers race 40 cards into sleeves for a $1,000 grand prize.
• Buying and swapping: the Community Game Swap Meetups run Friday 7 to 9 p.m. in the Queue Hall, built around a BoardGameGeek virtual flea market and a math trade. The Indie Games Night Market follows on Saturday, 7 to 10 p.m., with 26 designers selling games that have no other route to market.

The exhibitor directory listed more than 380 exhibitors on October 23. Among them: Wizards of the Coast at booth 2919, UVS Games with Riftbound at 2326, Asmodee USA at 2626, Ultra PRO at 2033, Stonemaier Games at 3151, Warhammer at 2401 with 30-minute intro games, and Restoration Games at 1833 with Unmatched: Hellboy and Thunder Road: Ignition.

A PAX tabletop hall waiting for players, at PAX East 2012. PAX's freeplay page promises a library of 3,000-plus games for Unplugged, though it labels that figure 2024. Photo: Schezar via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

The rules that catch people out

From PAX's safety page and FAQ:

• No rolling bags in the Expo Hall. Rolling bags, suitcases and wagons are banned inside it, along with stilts, remote-controlled vehicles and skates, on crowd-egress grounds. If you were planning to wheel a card case around, carry it through the Expo Hall. Stopping in an aisle for a cosplay photo is not allowed either.
• The wider banned list includes selfie sticks, folding chairs, balloons, glass containers, drones, skateboards, scooters and strollers larger than 31 by 52 inches.
• Props get peace-bonded once. Costume weapons are checked and zip-tied at the Information booth and stay bonded for the whole show. No metal swords, knives or spears, no real firearms or airsoft guns, working or decommissioned, no replica firearms in metal or solid resin, plastic or rubber, and firearm props need an orange tip. Taping over a blade does not make it legal.
• No AI-generated products for sale. PAX Unplugged's AI-Generated Product Policy bans selling anything made in whole or in substantial part with generative AI, including artwork. A vendor gets one warning, then can be removed without a refund or banned from future shows.
• Carry photo ID, wear your badge at all times, and expect possible bag checks. Smoking and vaping are banned inside, and alcohol is allowed only in designated areas, for over-21s.
• Smart glasses may not be worn where photography is prohibited, such as autographing and photo ops.
• Outside food is fine. PAX's quick-start guide points you to Reading Terminal Market across the street and warns that many nearby restaurants are reservation-only in the evening.
• Accessibility. Medical passes cover you and a plus one and are requested by emailing paxquestions@reedexpo.com, but the shop says a companion still needs their own badge. Sign language interpreters must be requested at least three weeks before the first day, which puts the 2026 deadline at Friday, November 13.
• Wi-Fi is lobby-only, per the FAQ, though PAX Nav saves maps and schedules for offline use.

The Grand Hall, the old Reading Terminal train shed, during a different event in 2014. In 2025 it was PAX Unplugged's badge-holders-only entrance from Market Street. Photo: jimmy thomas via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

A second PAX Unplugged, in Houston

PAX Unplugged is no longer one show. PAX Unplugged Houston runs June 25 to 27, 2027 at the George R. Brown Convention Center, 1001 Avenida De Las Americas, announced on September 4, 2026 during PAX West. Its official page gives the same shape as Philadelphia: 10 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, with the Expo Hall open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. Badges are not on sale; the page offers a newsletter to hear first.

It is the second Unplugged show; the first ran in Philadelphia on November 17 to 19, 2017. It also puts a PAX back in Texas, where PAX South used to run in San Antonio.

Where the official pages disagree

Read on October 23, PAX Unplugged's own pages, and two of its partners, contradict each other in these places.

• What the kids 3-Day badge costs. On a desktop screen the badge page shows $52.50 ($45 base), matching the shop. On a phone-width screen the same page shows a "3 DAY KIDS BADGE" at $47.25 ($40 base). The shop charges $52.50.
• Which days kids badges cover. The FAQ says the discounted kids badge is good for Sunday of the show. The shop sells kids badges for Friday, Saturday, Sunday and all three days.
• "12 PM EST" on October 30. The East Coast is on EDT until November 1. See the time zone table above.
• Last year's dates. The entry page lists badge pickup for 11/20 to 11/23, and the FAQ's coat check hours are dated Friday, November 21 to Sunday, November 23. Those are 2025's dates.
• Where coat check is. The FAQ puts it at the Broad Street entrance, Level 1, Room 126, at $5 an item or $10 with unlimited in and out. The quick-start guide puts it in the Hall F Atrium on Level 1 and says it "may cost a few dollars".
• Whether replica weapons are allowed at all. The cosplay rules allow costume weapons after peace bonding. The RX prohibited-items list, on the same page, bans "objects or toys that appear to be firearms, ammunition, knives, or weapons", and says security will treat anything that looks like a real gun as a real gun.
• Enforcer applications. The FAQ says they are open until October 16. The Get Involved page says "Opening Late Summer 2026".
• The show dates elsewhere. Pastimes, which runs the Magic and Lorcana events, lists PAX Unplugged as December 3 to 5 on its homepage. WeirdCo's calendar says December 3 to 6. PAX says December 4 to 6.
• Leftover years. The FAQ's health note is about "PAX Unplugged 2024", the PAX Together page still says "Apply now for Unplugged 2023", the quick-start guide says "it's November in Philadelphia", and the homepage's "Coming up next" box promotes PAX East for March 26 to 29, 2026 while its own menu lists PAX East on April 21, 2027.

What is not published yet

• Badge pickup hours and the entry plan for 2026. The entry page is 2025's.
• A time for Matt Leacock's Storytime.
• The autographing schedule, which PAX says comes out "mid to late fall".
• Maps and the PAX Nav app. Maps are "still being drawn"; the app is due about four weeks before the show.
• The First Look game list, marked "Coming soon for 2026!", and the PAX Rising Showcase winners, also "coming soon".
• Registration links for Riftbound and for the Lorcana events, and the prizes for the Braverse Regional.
• Houston badges.

Quick Action Checklist

• The 3-Day badge is sold out. Friday and Sunday are $57.75 and Saturday $60.90 on the official shop; any two days that include Saturday cost $118.65, just $4.19 under what the 3-Day did, and Friday plus Sunday is $115.50.
• Bringing a 7-to-12-year-old? Buy the kids 3-Day at $52.50; it costs the same as two kids single days. Under-7s are free with a paid adult.
• Want a Cyberpunk Showdown, Gundam, ONE PIECE, NARUTO Mythos or Palworld seat? Be on ppg.topdeck.gg at noon EDT on Friday, October 30 (9 a.m. PDT, 4 p.m. in London), and try 1 p.m. EDT if it is not live.
• Playing Pokémon? Register through pax.esportsadm.in; the Ditto events also take sign-ups at the ESA booth. Magic or Lorcana? Watch pastimesevents.com. Riftbound? UVS's link is not out yet. Braverse? It is on site only, with a Topdeck.gg account.
• Everything PAX runs itself opens in the PAX Nav app at 8 a.m. on the day, and fills fast.
• Bought after October 15? You collect in Philadelphia. Do not plan around the 2025 pickup hours still on PAX's entry page.
• Need an ASL interpreter? Ask by November 13.
• Leave the rolling case and the selfie stick at home, and bring photo ID.
• Planning around other shows? MagicCon Atlanta and TwitchCon San Diego both land on November 13 to 15, three weeks before Unplugged, and our PAX Aus guide covers October's PAX in Melbourne. More in the Gaming Events archive and across the Mythras blog.