DreamHack has announced that it will end the BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer) LAN component at its festivals, bringing one of the event’s most well-known traditions to an end.

The company said the decision comes after a steady decline in the number of attendees bringing their own gaming PCs to events. In 2025, BYOC participants made up less than 10% of total ticket holders globally.

DreamHack started in 1994 in the basement of a school in Malung, Sweden, and became famous for its massive BYOC LAN parties, where thousands of gamers brought their own computers and monitors to play together on a shared network.

The BYOC area was a major part of the DreamHack experience. Visitors could stay and game 24 hours a day, compete in tournaments for games like VALORANT, Call of Duty, and Fall Guys, and take part in a large community gathering centered around PC gaming.

Global Esports Industry Week (GEIW) will return in 2026 with a bigger and bolder edition, taking place across 18–21 June in Cologne, Germany, alongside IEM Cologne. The schedule and details about ticket sales are available in this link.

DreamHack said that while gaming culture remains strong, the way people attend and experience festivals has changed over the last decade. At the same time, running a large BYOC setup has become more difficult and complex.

Despite ending the BYOC format, the company said the festival experience will continue. “The ocean of screens isn’t going anywhere,” DreamHack said in its statement. Instead, DreamHack plans to focus more on activities that allow visitors to play without bringing their own hardware. This includes expanding experiences like PC Freeplay areas.

The company also said removing the BYOC section will free up a large amount of space at events, allowing for more interactive content and activities like the recent partnership with the Sour Punch brand at DreamHack Atlanta 2026, which featured a dedicated space on the show floor with retro arcade gaming stations. Similarly, the company also teamed up with hardware giants Samsung and Logitech to showcase their product setups at the event.

Subscribe to our TER newsletters here! Including On The Radar a quick weekly wrap up of all esports business stories, and the fortnightly Heat Map, a deeper dive into the stories not to be missed across esports business and culture worldwide.

Follow The Esports Radar on social media: