Parties remain popular in 2018.
Parties remain popular in 2018.
A month ago I participated in a LAN Party in Germany with 1312 people at the Northcon event (https://www.northcon.de/). DreamHack is also popular (https://dreamhack.com/). Yes, interest remains, though most attendees are now between 20 and 40. The excitement has faded, but LAN Parties are still alive.
Well, this event is quite a big lan gathering, well planned and all. Those still work but I believe the simpler "gather a group of friends and retreat to your basement for a weekend" style gatherings are becoming less common. The main reason could be that it's no longer essential anymore. Today's games often have online options, and internet speeds are sufficient. When I was younger, local network mode was the only reliable choice.
I attended an event with about half a dozen guests last year. PAX and several similar gatherings often feature big lan parties.
They remain popular. A group of friends recently held a LAN party a few weeks back. They’ve got an Ark server and keep things lively. It’s been quite enjoyable. These gatherings aren’t as frequent now as when I was younger, but they still happen.
It's unlikely they'll pass away. These gatherings resemble music events and tech meetups for fans of computers, gaming, and similar passions. A chance to connect with others who share the same interests or to encounter people you've only interacted with digitally.