Taking place at the Chiba Prefecture's Makuhari Messe convention centre on 16th-18th September 2005, CESA reports that a total of 176,056 visitors attended, smashing the event's previous record of 163,866 visitors in the spring of 1999; just prior to Sony's Japanese launch of the PS2.

The imminent launch of Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, Sony's planned launch of the PS3 and Nintendo's next generation plans for the Nintendo Revolution are said to be key in the massive attendance record, especially given the number of high profile next generation software titles on show for the first time.