TwitchCon San Diego 2026: Passes, Meet & Greets, Deadlines

There is no walk-up line for a Meet & Greet at TwitchCon San Diego 2026. Not a short one, not a standby one. Twitch's FAQ says every Meet & Greet needs a reservation made in the TwitchCon app, walk-ups will not be let in, and the app only opens for people who already hold a pass. The window to request a session opens on Monday, October 12, and it shuts on October 30.

That is the headline change for 2026, and it lands in the same three weeks as a payment-plan cutoff on October 13 and a price rise on October 27. Here is what TwitchCon San Diego 2026 costs, how the reservation system works, what is on the schedule if you go for the games rather than the streamers, and where Twitch's own pages disagree with each other, read on October 10.

Key dates between now and the doors

TwitchCon San Diego 2026 runs Friday, November 13 to Sunday, November 15 at the San Diego Convention Center, 111 W Harbor Drive. Twitch's March 25 blog post says the San Diego show stays in the Gaslamp Quarter through 2028. Every time below is Pacific.

Registration opens at 9:00 a.m. on each show day. Thursday is wristband pickup only, and it is the day to do 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.

One wrinkle on the clock. The FAQ gives the Meet & Greet times as "10am PST" on October 12 and "11:59pm PST" on October 30. Both dates fall before clocks go back on Sunday, November 1, so California is on daylight time (PDT) on both, and the FAQ's own plus-one deadline for the same October 30 night just says "PT". Be in the app at 10:00 a.m. on the Pacific clock. If Twitch literally means standard time, the window opens an hour later, not earlier.

What a pass costs, and what goes up on October 27

Prices from the official passes page on October 10, which was counting down to the October 27 increase:

The early-bird tier that ended August 31 was $239 for three days and $149 for one. The passes page labels the party add-on "Price Increases October 27" without showing the new figure; the pricing data embedded in the page lists $99 as the next step.

The 3-Day Pass is the cheaper ticket for anyone going two days. The show is open 26 hours across Friday (nine), Saturday (nine) and Sunday (eight). At $249 that is $9.58 an hour. Two single days at the $159 starting price come to at least $318, which is $69 more than all three days. The 1-Day Pass only wins if you are going for one day and one day only.

The bundle is the thing you cannot buy any more. It added party entry, a limited-edition pin and digital game codes from brand partners to the 3-Day Pass; the FAQ's partner list includes the base game of Moonlighter, a Street Fighter 6 outfit and Detroit: Become Human on PC. You can rebuild most of it as a 3-Day Pass plus the $89 party add-on, which is $338 against the bundle's $299, but the pin and the codes went with the bundle.

The rules that come with the pass, from the FAQ:

• You need a Twitch account with an email address on it to buy a pass if you are 13 or over. The pass is tied to that account.
• Wristbands are non-refundable, non-transferable and non-replaceable if stolen. Resold, transferred or third-party passes are not honoured. A lost or damaged wristband costs $25 to replace.
• Upgrades and day changes are allowed through the registration site, with fees. Downgrades are not.
• Klarna payment plans are available until October 13, which the FAQ calls 30 days before the event. They are 18+ only and subject to Klarna's own approval.
• The Turbo trial is 3-Day only. The activation email arrives within a week after the show, the trial renews automatically, and Twitch lists Turbo at $11.99 a month on the web where no local price applies. It is not offered in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Russia, Taiwan or Ukraine.
• Partners get the Thursday Partner Party, a Partner Shop Night in the Loot Cave and the Partner Lounge, with no plus ones. Affiliates get a gift at the Affiliate redemption desk.

The TwitchCon 2019 show floor in San Diego. Note the backpacks: in 2026 they are banned, and only Affiliates and Partners may bring a screened IRL streaming rig. Photo: Dale Cruse via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Meet & Greets are reservation-only now

Twitch announced the change on March 25, in a blog post about its 2026 events: "moving forward", every Meet & Greet requires a reservation, walk-ups will not be allowed, and that includes plus ones. The same post promises more dedicated staff, better separation between lines and creators, and clearer entry and exit paths. It does not name an incident. The San Diego FAQ says the 2026 plans take in feedback from the 2025 San Diego show, which is where streamer Emiru was assaulted by a fan at a Meet & Greet on the opening day. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy later said Twitch "failed", both in allowing it and in its response, per Tubefilter's report.

Here is how the 2026 system works, from the FAQ:

• Buy a pass first, then get the app. Sign in with the Twitch account the pass is on. Twitch says a new registration can take up to an hour to sync.
• Requests run October 12 at 10:00 a.m. to October 30 at 11:59 p.m. In the app, open Sessions, filter for Meet & Greets and add one to your schedule.
• One reservation per session, and no overlaps. If two sessions overlap, the app makes you pick one.
• A 1-Day Pass only books its own day. A Saturday pass cannot reserve a Sunday session.
• One plus one per reservation, and they need their own pass for that day. Add them by October 30 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
• A request is not a seat. Confirmations go out by email by November 9 and show under My Agenda in the app.
• After October 30, sessions with space left stop taking direct reservations. A waitlist opens on November 1. It does not guarantee entry, and waitlisted entries never get a plus one.
• On the day, the queue starts about 30 minutes before the session. Arrive more than 30 minutes after it starts and entry is not guaranteed. There is no re-entry once you have checked in.
• The creator sets the rules for photos, autographs, hugs and gifts. Gifts must be unwrapped, and edible or perishable gifts are not allowed.

The schedule went up on October 9. Counted from the official schedule on October 10, there are 59 bookable Meet & Greet sessions, each with a published capacity:

Capacities run from 40 to 120. Most two-hour sessions take 120 people and most one-hour sessions take 60; the VTuber booth's sessions take 40 or 80. Saturday carries 26 of the 59 sessions and 2,000 of the 4,780 places, about 42 per cent, which matters if you are choosing a single day. Ironmouse is the only creator with a session on all three days: one VTuber Meet & Greet each day, noon to 2:00 p.m., 80 places each.

What the FAQ does not say is how Twitch picks when a session gets more requests than places, whether that is first come or a draw. So our advice does not depend on it: request everything you want in the first window, add your plus one through the plus-one link as soon as it appears in the app or your email, and do not wait for the waitlist, because the waitlist cannot carry a plus one.

The channel-name chalk wall at TwitchCon 2019. Meeting your favourite streamer is no longer a line you join on the day; it is a request you file in October. Photo: Dale Cruse via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

What is on if you came for the games

TwitchCon is a streaming convention first, but the schedule has more game content than its "festival of streamers" pitch suggests. Of the 289 listings on the official schedule, 43 carry the Video Games tag, before you count the games-heavy Meet & Greets.

Riot Games has its own room. The Riot Games Theater runs 11 sessions across the weekend, and every listing notes it is a no-stream space:

The Saturday watch party is the League of Legends World Championship final, streamed live from Barclays Center in Brooklyn, with a rebroadcast afterwards. The 11:00 a.m. start lines up with the Grand Final time in our Worlds 2026 schedule guide. The early-access hour needs an RSVP on TwitchCon's Shows page, and you need a pass to RSVP. Sunday's Riftbound session is a 3v3 creator show match played with giant versions of the cards; if you have never played, our Riftbound primer covers the basics.

Minecraft gets seven sessions. Seven listings carry the Minecraft tag, and the headline is the MC Championship (MCC) in the Twitch Rivals Arena on Sunday, 12:00 – 3:30 p.m., run by Noxcrew, with 30 creators named on the listing, Tubbo, Philza, Grian and TinaKitten among them. The other six:

Several MC Championship names also have Meet & Greets, all bookable through the app: Grian, GeminiTay and ZombieCleo share a Friday 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. session (60 places); fWhip is with Mogswamp in the same Friday block (120); Pangi and Derapchu are Saturday at 10:30 a.m. (60); impulseSV and Skizzleman, bekyamon and owengejuicetv, and hannahxxrose and Minute are all Saturday 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.; and Feinberg is Sunday 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. (120), after MCC ends. The PvP panel pairs well with our Minecraft combat guide. Friday's A Quick 101 on Speedrunning for Beginners (6:00 p.m., PJSugar Stage) is a general speedrunning panel, not a Minecraft one, but if Minecraft is the game you want to run, start with the speedrun guide.

The rest of the games list:

• Capcom: Mega Man: Dual Override, Sunday 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. in the NomNom Theater, billed as "exciting new details" on the 2027 game. Capcom announced it before Tokyo Game Show and gave it an extended look in its Tokyo Game Show Spotlight in September.
• The Rings of Power: A Middle Earth One-Shot feat. Critical Role, Sunday 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. in the Glitch Theater, with Liam O'Brien as Game Master for cast members from The Rings of Power and The Legend of Vox Machina.
• Twitch Rivals Turbo Cup fueled by Honda, Friday 2:00 – 4:30 p.m.: variety creators racing RC cars on a "Neo Tokyo" track.
• Roblox takes over the LAN area all day Friday, per the Shows page, and holds its Official Community MeetUp on Saturday at 3:00 p.m.
• Community MeetUps for The Sims (Friday 3:00 p.m.), cozy games (Saturday 4:30 p.m.), horror games with Dead by Daylight (Sunday 1:00 p.m.), and retro and speedrunning (Sunday 2:30 p.m.).
• Tabletop: the events page lists a tabletop area for board games, minis and TTRPGs, and the stages carry a live D&D show (Saturday 3:30 p.m.) and a drag TTRPG one-shot (Sunday 3:30 p.m.).

Sunday is the collision day. The Critical Role one-shot (11:00 – 2:00), the Riftbound show match (11:00 – 1:30), MCC (12:00 – 3:30) and the Mega Man session (12:00 – 1:00) all overlap. By the Video Games tag, Friday actually has the most game sessions (16, against 15 on Saturday and 12 on Sunday), but Sunday packs four of the headline game shows into the same four and a half hours, 11:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Pick one before you go.

It is also a crowded weekend away from San Diego. MagicCon Atlanta runs the same November 13 to 15, and the Worlds final is in Brooklyn on the Saturday.

The schedule by the numbers

The official schedule carried 289 listings on October 10. Counted by the program type Twitch assigns each one:

The 70 Meet & Greet rows are the 59 bookable sessions plus 11 block listings that name who is signing in each time slot. Four other things fall out of the grid:

• The Opening Ceremony is Friday, 10:30 – 11:15 a.m. in the Glitch Theater, with an update from Twitch executives. Other Glitch Theater shows include Million To One, a live trivia show where chat plays along (Friday 1:30 p.m.), the Drag Showcase (Friday 4:30 p.m.), an e.l.f. Cosmetics world-record attempt at the largest simultaneous Get Ready With Me (Saturday 11:00 a.m.), Ironmouse Presents: Open Stage, a karaoke party (Saturday 4:30 p.m.), and the Critical Role one-shot on Sunday.
• Saturday has no Twitch Rivals event. The arena's three listings are Friday's Turbo Cup, Friday's concert and Sunday's MCC.
• The Friday Function concert, hosted by ImDontai, runs 6:30 – 8:30 p.m., 90 minutes past the published 7:00 p.m. Friday close.
• Eleven Creator Camp sessions are tagged Partner Exclusive, all in the Creator Camp Partner Lounge, including a Saturday chat with Twitch CEO Dan Clancy listed as Partners only. Plan around them unless you are a Partner.

Sessions are first come, first served and free with a pass, and once a room is full, staff may ask you to move on. The FAQ says not all sessions are streamed or recorded, so a full room is not a guaranteed VOD.

The TwitchCon Party is at Petco Park

The Official TwitchCon Party is Saturday, November 14, 7:00 – 10:30 p.m. at Gallagher Square at Petco Park, and it needs the add-on on top of a pass. The add-on covers two drink tickets (beer, wine or a non-alcoholic drink), ballpark food, live music and games. The rules, from the FAQ:

• Bring government photo ID if you are 21+ and want a drink. There are ID checks at the gate, and ID stations at the convention center on Saturday, where you get a 21+ or non-alcoholic wristband.
• No re-entry. Leave the party and you are not getting back in.
• The party has its own, tighter bag policy. Single-compartment clear bags up to 12" x 6" x 12", or clutches up to 5" x 7". No backpacks of any kind, IRL streaming rigs included, and no bag check at the party.
• Streaming is allowed, with details promised in a "Know Before You Go" email that the FAQ says goes out two weeks before the event.
• Petco Park's own banned list applies too, including selfie sticks, laser pointers, umbrellas that block sightlines, hard coolers and wallet chains.

The TwitchCon Party stage at Petco Park in 2022. The 2026 party is in Gallagher Square, and it is a separate add-on, $89 through October 26. Photo: Yonaimy via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Getting in: ID, bags, cosplay and cameras

ID. Entry needs a government-issued photo ID (passport, national ID card or driver's licence) whose name matches your registration. Attendees aged 13 to 17 may use a school ID or any photo ID with their full name instead, and need a signed parent or guardian form.

Children. A child under 13 needs a Child Pass added on by an accompanying adult aged 18 or over, who registers first and stays with them throughout. Very young children get in free, but Twitch's pages disagree on the exact age; see the next section.

Bags. Backpacks are banned. Small bags may be no larger than 12" wide, 12" high and 6" deep, and everything is searched. Only Affiliates and Partners may bring IRL streaming backpacks, after screening and tagging. A backpack you buy at the show cannot come back in with you.

Masks and cosplay. Full-face masks and full-face paint have to wait until you are through security. Prop weapons must be shown to security for tagging, must be made of cardboard, foam, wood or similar light material, and cannot pass for a real weapon; swords have to be tied so they cannot be drawn, and nothing may look like a current first responder's uniform. Realistic replica firearms are banned outright.

Cameras. The IRL streaming policy keeps aisles and exits clear and bans streaming at security, registration, bathrooms, first aid, the AFK quiet room and the Partner areas. Red "Do Not Stream" lanyards mean exactly that: do not interview or film anyone wearing one, or anyone who says no. Breaking the policy can get your streaming suspended for the show, you removed, or you barred from future TwitchCons.

Also banned: drones, noisemakers, aerosol cans, balls and frisbees, and sitting in the aisles, by order of the fire marshal.

Accessibility. Twitch lists AFK quiet rooms, sign language interpretation at designated sessions, live captions through Wordly in the content rooms, accessible queueing and seating, a nursing room, all-gender bathrooms and limited wheelchair and scooter rental. Assistance dogs are allowed; emotional-support animals are not. Requests go through Twitch's accessibility form.

Getting there. Hotels at reduced rates run through Twitch's housing partner, Connections Housing, the FAQ points flyers to Southwest and Alaska Airlines discounts, and on-site parking is limited.

The San Diego Convention Center on Harbor Drive. Twitch says TwitchCon San Diego stays in the Gaslamp Quarter through 2028. Photo: Visitor7 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Where the official pages disagree

Read on October 10, Twitch's own TwitchCon pages disagree with each other in five places.

• Who needs a Child Pass. The passes page sells Child Passes "for children 13yrs and under". The FAQ says the Child Pass is for children under 13, and asks attendees aged 13 to 17 for a signed parental or guardian form instead. A 13-year-old fits both.
• Who gets in free. The passes page says children "under 5yrs" are free. The FAQ says children "5 and under" are free. A five-year-old is free by the FAQ but not by the passes page.
• "PST" in October. The Meet & Greet window is given as 10am PST on October 12 and 11:59pm PST on October 30, both of which fall in daylight time; the plus-one deadline on the same night says PT.
• Whether the schedule is out. The FAQ's "When and where" answer still says "Stay tuned for the full schedule release". The schedule is live (the FAQ itself promised it for October 9), and the homepage says so.
• Leftover copy from earlier shows. The Partner Party FAQ says details go to Partners with tickets to "TwitchCon San Diego 2025", and the event policies refer to a "TwitchCon Block Party", while the 2026 pages sell the Official TwitchCon Party at Petco Park.

What is not published yet

• How oversubscribed Meet & Greets are allocated. The FAQ says a request does not guarantee a place, and stops there.
• Which sessions stream. Not all sessions are streamed or recorded, per the FAQ, and the schedule does not mark which ones are.
• The full 1-Day and Child Pass price list. Both are sold "starting at" a price, and the passes page does not list the full breakdown.
• The party's new price and entrance details. The passes page shows only that the price rises October 27; the $99 figure appears in the page's embedded pricing data, not on the page. The entrance details are promised in the "Know Before You Go" email.
• The accessible entrance. Twitch says there will be a designated accessibility entrance for screening and wristband pickup, with details closer to the event.
• An exhibitor page. The events page describes the expo floor in general terms, and the TwitchCon site had no exhibitor page on October 10.

Quick Action Checklist

• Buy before October 27 if you are going: the 3-Day Pass is $249 until then and $259 after. Need a payment plan? Klarna closes October 13.
• Going for two days? Buy the 3-Day Pass. Two single days cost at least $318.
• Be in the TwitchCon app at 10:00 a.m. Pacific on Monday, October 12, with your pass already bought; new registrations can take up to an hour to sync.
• Request every Meet & Greet you want before October 30 at 11:59 p.m., and add your plus one by the same deadline. Waitlisted places never get a plus one.
• Check your email by November 9. No confirmation, no entry: there are no walk-ups.
• Watching the Worlds final in San Diego? RSVP for the Riot Games Theater's 10:00 a.m. early-access hour on the Shows page.
• Minecraft fans: Sunday. MCC runs 12:00 – 3:30 p.m., and it overlaps the Critical Role, Riftbound and Mega Man sessions.
• Pick up your wristband on Thursday, November 12, between noon and 8:00 p.m.
• Leave the backpack at the hotel. Small bags only, 12" x 12" x 6" at most, and the party is stricter still.
• Planning more of the season? MagicCon Atlanta is the same weekend, the Worlds 2026 guide has the rest of that bracket, and the PAX West 2026 breakdown shows how another US show prices its badges. More in the Gaming Events archive and across the Mythras blog.