A record 90,000 fans descended on Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre for PAX Aus 2026. The event took place last weekend and was a showcase of everything that makes gaming culture so vibrant: from early hands-on access with major unreleased titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, SEGA’s Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000, and Nintendo’s Switch Sports Resort, to an unbelievable celebration of the local community. The floor was packed with energy, with attendees diving into massive developer panels, checking out the creativity at Cosplay Land, and meeting special guest icons like World of Warcraft’s Holly Longdale.

Beyond the AAA blockbusters, this year put a massive, well-deserved spotlight on independent and analogue gaming. The Aus Indie Showcase powered by Superloop, PAX Rising, and CODE featured over 90 brilliant indie titles, giving fans a firsthand look at the next big breakout hits. Meanwhile, the eBay Tabletop Hall expanded into its largest iteration yet, filling entire halls with board games, trading cards, RPGs, and dedicated spaces like the new Magpie Room for classic gaming enthusiasts. We also had the chance to check out some of the coolest tech on the expo floor, and rounded up our top picks.

Smart Tech & Desk Essentials

If you are looking for the next best tech to kit out your desk, then look no further.

Govee Table Lamp Class S (Portable)

Govee returned to the show floor with Clever Gear to showcase their latest lineup of smart lighting, and this portable lamp was an instant stand-out for sleek desk setups. Featuring customisable RGBIC lighting, dynamic scene modes, and seamless smart app control, it lets you bring full immersive atmosphere anywhere from your gaming station to your bedside table without needing a wall outlet nearby. You can pick it up, and place wherever you want, and you might have caught me walking around the booth with this in hand!

Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro (Portable Speaker x Sound by JBL)

Taking smart lighting a step further, the Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro combines premium visual ambience with impressive audio powered by JBL. The rich, room-filling sound pairs directly with reactive light shows that sync to your music or gaming audio, making it a complete all-in-one desktop mood setter. Govee did a brilliant job showcasing these lights as jellyfish, which you can see in my Instagram reel.

Divoom MiniToo

For retro aesthetics and desktop charm, the Divoom MiniToo is an absolute standout. It combines a retro computer-style chassis with a vibrant pixel display, delivering everything from custom animated pixel art to real-time notifications, weather updates, and clock displays that add a huge dose of personality to any gaming station.

Toniebox 2 & Pokémon Pikachu Starter Set

For families introducing younger gamers to screen-free interactive entertainment, the Toniebox 2 made a huge splash. The Pokémon Pikachu Starter Set lets kids pop a cute Pikachu audio figure right onto the durable, soft-touch audio player to unlock immersive storybooks, sound effects, and audio adventures, seamlessly blending collectability with audio play.

Mobile & Handheld Gaming Gear

This year’s PAX Aus had some standouts for mobile and small form gaming. I was blown away, particularly by the tech that can now be paired with all this handheld gear.

ROG Xbox Ally X Handheld

Handheld PC gaming continues to reach incredible new heights, and the ROG Xbox Ally X was one of the most sought-after hands-on experiences at the ASUS booth. We reviewed this device earlier in the year, and seeing the upgraded, 20th anniversary edition, complete with gaming glasses made for a really immersive gaming experience. Packing top-tier AMD performance, enhanced ergonomic grips, double the battery capacity of earlier iterations, and seamless integration with Xbox Game Pass, it delivers true desktop-class performance right in the palm of your hands.

SanDisk Pokémon Mew Edition USB-C Flash Drive

Combining high-speed storage with iconic fan-favourite design, SanDisk showcased their new collection featuring a sleek Pokémon Mew-themed USB-C drive. It offers lightning-fast USB 3.2 Gen 1 speeds wrapped in a compact, durable casing that easily plugs into laptops, handheld consoles, or mobile devices for quick file transfers on the go, legendary!

Computer Hardware & High-Performance Peripherals

There were so many keyboards, mice, and controllers on display at PAX Aus 2026, so I picked just a few of my favourite pieces.

Keychron G6 HE Ultralight 8K Wireless Mouse

Keychron proved they can do way more than just phenomenal mechanical keyboards with the G6 HE 8K. This ultra-lightweight wireless mouse boasts an astounding 8,000Hz polling rate for near-instantaneous tracking and input response, paired with precision Hall Effect tech that gives competitive gamers razor-sharp accuracy on the floor. My favourite feature on this mouse is the hot-swappable battery, where your spare battery sits inside the RGB charger, so cool.

Top-of-the-Range GPUs

PC builders were treated to an incredible display of raw hardware horsepower across the expo floor, showcasing the absolute pinnacle of current-gen graphics cards. Featuring massive heat sinks, whisper-quiet multi-fan cooling solutions, and zero-cable stealth designs, these top-tier GPUs demonstrated stunning ray tracing performance and unmatched frame rates driving the booth demos.

Secretlab Gaming Desks

No high-end rig is complete without an equally impressive surface, and Secretlab’s heavy-duty desk lineup continues to set the benchmark for modern gaming stations. Showcasing the desks alongside their equally awesome chairs, the desks are high quality, and something I am definitely eyeing off. Featuring built-in magnetic cable management systems, full-coverage desk pads, smooth motorised sit-to-stand height adjustments, and tonnes of accessories, they offer the ultimate clean, sturdy foundation for power users.

Razer Soma Chroma

Razer brought the ultimate fusion of ergonomic comfort and signature RGB flare to the floor with the Razer Soma Chroma. Engineered for long gaming sessions, this chair features full-body lumbar support alongside integrated Razer Chroma RGB lighting across the frame, allowing it to sync directly with the rest of your Razer peripheral ecosystem for total desktop immersion. And the lighting isn’t the only thing that’s awesome about this chair. It has fully haptic feedback, so when you’re running faster, the chair will vibrate a little quicker, and when you’re sliding along, you’ll feel it in your back. Now that’s some next level immersion.

Wrap-Up

There is really nothing quite like PAX Aus. Having access to world-class tech, early game builds, and top-tier peripherals right here in Australia—where you can actually test them out in person before hitting buy—is always a highlight of the year. I walked away from the show floor with a huge list of gear I can’t wait to spend more time with, so keep an eye out for full review articles coming to techAU very soon. With the controllers down and the show floor officially wrapped up, I’m already counting down the days and keen as ever for PAX Aus next year! If you want to see or relive the hype, you can check out my Instagram reel.