Thanks in part to the H1N1 scare, it's taken a little longer than normal for organizers of the Penny Arcade Expo to tally up the final attendance numbers for the 2009 edition of the show that was held last week in Seattle. However, today Big Download can exclusively report that PAX 2009 officially had 60,750 people show up at the show this weekend.

That's only a slight increase from last year's number of 58,500 attendees but it's important to note that this year PAX 2009 had a limited amount of tickets to sell due to concerns of overcrowding and safety from the show's venue at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. All the previously alloted tickets were sold out a few days before the show opened. However, after the convention center saw how well PAX 2009 was handling the large crowds, they gave show organizers the thumbs up to sell a limited number of Saturday and Sunday day tickets, both of which quickly sold out.

In a quick phone chat today with Penny Arcade's Robert Khoo he told us that next year they hope to allow more people to attend the show due to some expansion plans that are taking shape around the convention center. And then there's PAX East, which is scheduled to be held in Boston in late March. Khoo told us it's still too early to say how many people will attend that event but that he's been surprised at the number of people who actually plan to come to both PAX shows in 2010.