January 1, 2004

Ten largest North American anime conventions of 2003

by Patrick Delahanty

AnimeCons.com has collected attendance figures from anime conventions and assembled a list of the largest anime conventions of 2003. Sometimes a convention will report the total number of paid attendees and other conventions will report the total number of people with a badge (which includes paid attendees, staff, guests, dealers, and others). The type of number reported is listed here when known.

1. Otakon: 17,338 paid (17,685 estimated total)
2. Anime Expo: 17,000 estimated total
3. Big Apple Anime Fest: 12,832 people*
4. A-Kon: 7,413 people
5. Anime Central: 6,190 people
6. FanimeCon: 5,400 people
7. Anime North: 4,875 people
8. Anime Weekend Atlanta: 4,584 people
9. Anime Boston: 4,110 total
10. Animethon: estimated 4,000 people

* Note that Big Apple Anime Fest was the only convention to report numbers by counting people multiple times. If someone attended three days, they counted three times. As a result, they may have actually ranked lower than they appear here.

The above list only includes conventions with a majority of their programming dedicated to anime and manga. Comic and sci-fi conventions were not included.