Nuke-Con 2026: Council Bluffs Gaming Convention Turns 36

Mid-America Center — Site of Nuke-Con Convention
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Gamers of every age and experience level gathered at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs this weekend for Nuke-Con’s 36th annual convention, a three-day gathering built around board games, card games, role-playing games and miniature tabletop battles. The event wrapped up Sunday, closing out a weekend of tournaments, vendor booths and special events aimed at both longtime hobbyists and total newcomers.

As Nuke-Con is run entirely by volunteers and exists to promote the social, educational and entertainment sides of gaming, with organizers designing the convention to be family-friendly and welcoming whether attendees have been gaming for decades or are just picking up a deck of cards for the first time. The Mid-America Center, which opened in October 2002, includes a 30,000-square-foot arena and has anchored the Council Bluffs-Omaha metro for more than two decades

Scouts Get Hands-On With Game Design

Beyond the open gaming floor, this year’s convention built in structured opportunities for local teens. Scouts BSA offered a Game Design Merit Badge class on-site, letting Scouts design and playtest original games alongside professional designers, while Nuke-Con also hosted information sessions introducing a new gaming and leadership-focused Scouting Venture Crew for local teenagers, according to details from the Mid-America Council scouting event listing.

Free play was a major draw too. The Board Game Wagon, a local nonprofit mobile game library, brought hundreds of titles and Play-to-Win games for attendees to try, marking nearly a decade of partnership with the convention, per Nuke-Con’s own account of the collaboration. Through Double Exposure’s Envoy program, attendees could test featured titles and enter drawings for a chance to win them outright.

Cosplay, LEGO Displays and Organized Play Fill the Floor

Nuke-Con 2026 pushed beyond the tabletop this year, expanding into cosplay workshops, costume panels, live action role-playing and an appearance from the local Ghostbusters cosplay chapter, according to the convention’s own program book. The weekend also featured exhibits from regional hobby groups, including pop-culture LEGO displays from the Lincoln Omaha LEGO User Group, plus organized play campaigns hosted by the Omaha Pathfinder Society and the D&D Adventurers League, as detailed by brick.news.

Raffle and Gaming Tables Raise Money for Omaha Kids

Nuke-Con’s charity raffle benefits the Children’s Hospital and Medical Center Foundation in Omaha, per KETV’s reporting, and the convention also supports Extra Life, the charity gaming initiative. All proceeds from Nuke-Con’s Extra Life gaming tables and the annual raffle go directly to the Children’s Nebraska Foundation to support local pediatric medical care and equipment, with the foundation receiving the full amount raised during the weekend, according to Nuke-Con’s program materials.

That year-round model fits into a broader moment for the hobby. The global board game market was valued at roughly $21.5 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $39.46 billion by 2031, driven largely by adult consumers and demand for strategy games, according to a report from PR Newswire.

Within that wider landscape, Nuke-Con brought tabletop gamers together in Council Bluffs for the weekend.

Council Bluffs/Greater Omaha-Fun & Entertainment