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Freedom251 › Blog › Chris Thomas

“I wanted to make the show I wanted to watch” – How Galaxies found a place in the crowded showcase landscape

By Freedom251 Team · · 6 min read

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Galaxies Showcase stands out by treating a games showcase as a tightly edited viewing product rather than an open-ended conference. Its main program runs for about an hour, moves rapidly through trailers, excludes developer interviews and side segments, and combines premium studio production with a curated mix of indie and double-A games. Paid placements help finance free exposure for smaller developers, giving the event a distinct position between low-budget indie collaborations and major platform presentations.

Founder Chris Thomas says the design began with a simple test: “I wanted to make the show that I would need to watch” — “which is one that’s respectful of your time.”

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What is the Galaxies Showcase?

Galaxies is a twice-yearly showcase built around an April and October rhythm. The profile of the event describes a main program capped at one hour or less, presented from a high-end studio and anchored by Outside Xbox’s Jane Douglas. It is trailer-led: there are no developer interviews or separate side segments inside the main broadcast.

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That format was designed around a strict viewing rule. Thomas says that if someone does not care about the current game, they should have to wait no more than 59 seconds for the next title. The fourth showcase was scheduled to debut on 15 October 2026, according to the profile published the previous day; that date and any participating lineup should therefore be treated as time-sensitive.

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Why the format feels different

Element Galaxies approach Contrast described in the profile
Runtime Main program limited to one hour or less Longer conference blocks can require viewers to sit through unwanted games
Lineup Controlled genre mix with free editorial inclusions alongside paid placements Open or entirely paid lineups offer less control over balance
Production High-end studio presentation with a dedicated host Lower-cost digital showcases generally operate with fewer production resources
Market position Indie and double-A focus Platform-led and top-tier publisher events sit at the larger, more expensive end of the spectrum

The result is a middle ground: more polished than a grassroots compilation of trailers, but not built around the hardware platform or blockbuster publisher priorities that shape the biggest conferences. Curation is central to that proposition. The show is intended to be useful even when a viewer arrives without a specific game in mind.

Chris Thomas’s reason for starting it

Thomas founded Galaxies after ten years leading game sales at Twitch. Before that, he held sales roles at GameSpot UK and Videogamer. He drew on relationships from those jobs, including Outside Xbox’s Jane Douglas and DoubleJump producer Seb Ford, while his partner Ari Raad handled game curation.

Thomas has described the project as “a big gamble.” The first event was bootstrapped with the money he had left to record in a small Croydon studio. The aim was not simply to create another marketing slot; it was to make a show that moved quickly enough to respect a viewer’s limited time while still surfacing games that might otherwise be missed.

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How the first show built an audience

The debut streamed exclusively on Twitch, where Thomas already understood the platform but did not yet have an established YouTube relationship. One paid co-stream came from CohhCarnage; other streamers joined because they supported the concept. A signup form brought 120 Twitch co-streamers by the end of that first show.

IGN also co-streamed the event. The profile says Asmongold later co-streamed it, helping the broadcast reach approximately 23,000 concurrent viewers and prompting follow-on interest from publishers and a YouTube representative. Those figures are Thomas’s account as reported in the GamesIndustry.biz profile, not an independently audited audience report.

How Galaxies helps games get discovered

Galaxies mixes paid placements with free, curated inclusions. Raad selects the games, while the number of paying clients determines how much room remains for free slots. Thomas says the objective is to preserve a balanced mix rather than fill the program with one genre or let commercial demand dictate every minute.

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The funding idea is explicit cross-subsidy. Thomas puts it this way: “We want the people who have budgets and money, the people who are succeeding and doing well, to pay for the indies and the solo devs who are never going to afford to be in a show.” In that model, a publisher or better-funded studio buys exposure while part of the event’s capacity remains available to developers who could not otherwise pay for a premium presentation.

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The rationale is tied to the scale of the storefront. A 2025 Swipe Right press release put the approximate number of new games arriving on Steam each year at 15,000. In such a crowded release environment, a short, strongly edited showcase can offer a discovery moment that a store page or an isolated trailer may not generate on its own.

What the reported numbers show

Reported figure What it refers to Qualification
More than doubled Spring showcase audience in its second year, excluding social clips Reported by the GamesIndustry.biz profile in 2026
+17,731 average wishlists Average wishlist gain for featured games GameDiscoverCo data cited by the GamesIndustry.biz profile in 2026
23,000 concurrent viewers Approximate debut concurrency after Asmongold’s co-stream Chris Thomas’s account, reported in the 2026 profile
120 co-streamers Signup total by the end of the first show Chris Thomas’s account, reported in the 2026 profile
15,000 new games per year Approximate annual number of Steam releases Figure from a 2025 Swipe Right press release

The wishlist figure is useful evidence of an association, not proof that Galaxies alone caused every increase. The profile does not provide the sample definition, full methodology, confidence interval or an independent audit. Games shown in a showcase may also benefit from their own campaigns, release timing, streamer coverage or other events.

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Is Galaxies worth it for a publisher or developer?

For publishers and funded studios

A paid slot may make sense when a team has a trailer, announcement or release beat that benefits from a concentrated audience and a polished presentation. The format offers a predictable maximum runtime and a lineup curated for viewers who actively want game discoveries. Commercial partners should still ask for the specific placement, expected distribution, co-stream plan, deliverables and reporting before committing.

For indie and solo developers

The cross-subsidy model is designed to leave some free editorial space, so a developer without a large marketing budget may still be considered. Inclusion is not guaranteed: Raad curates the games, and paying clients affect how many free places remain. There is no published self-serve submission process or public rate card in the available profile and press material, so developers should contact the organizers directly and confirm eligibility, assets, deadlines and whether any fee applies.

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Questions to settle before participation

  • Is the appearance paid, free or part of another partnership?
  • What trailer length, format and delivery deadline are required?
  • Where will the show be streamed and which co-streamers are expected?
  • What audience, viewership and wishlist reporting will be supplied afterward?
  • Can the game be placed alongside titles from the same genre without losing visibility?
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What the evidence cannot establish

Galaxies has reported momentum, but the available account is a profile built largely from Thomas’s statements and cited industry data. It does not establish a controlled comparison with games that skipped the showcase, nor does it isolate the effect of the broadcast from other marketing activity. Audience growth and wishlist movement should therefore be presented as reported outcomes rather than guaranteed results.

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The commercial details are also less public than the viewing format. No source verifies an affiliate, referral, commission, cookie or self-serve submission program. Sponsorship and partner opportunities may exist, but their terms require confirmation from Galaxies.

The takeaway

Galaxies found room in a crowded showcase market by making restraint part of the product: a one-hour ceiling, rapid transitions, premium presentation and deliberate curation. Its paid-and-free structure attempts to turn commercial budgets into exposure for smaller teams, while the reported audience and wishlist figures suggest meaningful reach without proving a universal causal effect. For viewers, the promise is efficient discovery; for developers and publishers, the value depends on the slot, audience distribution and terms that the organizers confirm for each event.

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Chris ThomasGalaxies Showcasegame discoverygame marketinggames showcasesindie games

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