The Consumer Technology Association said on the show's
closing day that more than 40,000 people attended the multi-day event on the
Las Vegas Strip. That's less than a quarter of the more than 170,000 the CTA
said were there for its 2020 convention.
The COVID-19 pandemic led the CTA to take 2021's conference
online, but the trade group decided eight months ago to bring a physical CES
2022 back to Vegas. That proved challenging amid a global spike in infections
caused by the fast-moving omicron coronavirus variant that emerged late last
year.
Conference attendees were required to wear masks on the
exhibition floors that opened Wednesday and show proof of vaccination before
they arrived. But the rise in COVID-19 cases led a number of big tech companies
to pull out of the conference in the weeks before the event.