The announcement that the hugely popular Penny Arcade Expo would be getting an spin-off event in Boston generated tons of interest from both gamers and the game industry. Today Big Download can exclusively reveal that the inaugural PAX East event held last weekend at Boston's Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center officially brought in 52,290 attendees. All of the tickets for PAX East 2010 sold out a week before the show started. By contrast the first ever Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle brought in 3,300 attendees in 2004. In 2009 PAX in Seattle had 60,750 attendees.

As we have previously reported the 2011 edition of PAX East will be held in the much larger Boston Convention and Exhibition Center sometime next March so expect a much bigger attendance number for that event. Meanwhile the mothership Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle will be held September 3-5.