Otakon announces 2007 attendance
Otakon has announced that 22,852 paid attendees were at this year's convention. This is up just 550 from Otakon 2006's paid attendance count of 22,302.
This is the second consecutive year of slow growth for the Baltimore convention. Last year, Otakon attendance fell below the attendance cap of 25,000 and attendance was up only 302 from 2005. In 2005, Otakon reached it's attendance cap of 22,000 and saw an increase of 1,101 over Otakon 2004.
At the same time, Otakon's pre-registration numbers have been declining. Otakon drew 19,900 pre-registered attendees in 2005, 17,500 in 2006, and 16,903 in 2007.
Otakon reports its attendance as memberships sold. Single day memberships were not available for the third year in a row. Otakon plans to publish additional statistics on its web site shortly.