Anime NYC Announces Record Turnout

The second annual Anime NYC convention was recently held at the Javits Center in New York City, and it reportedly did very well in terms of attendance. The Asian pop culture convention, with an obvious focus on anime given its name, more than doubled its number of visitors from last year.

According to Anime NYC’s founder, Peter Tatara, the 2018 convention saw 36,000 unique attendees during its convention on November 16th through November 18th. That’s more than double the 15,000 attendees for 2017. What’s more is that Tatara reportedly claimed that the number would be even higher if they weren’t simply counting what appears to be badge sales.

“If we turnstiled, we’d be 50,000 plus,” Tatara told Publishers Weekly. In other words, if they were counting the number of people that actually entered the convention, which would of course include repeat visitors, attendance numbers would be even greater. Even without that, the number of attendees is impressive.

Given how many companies seemingly prioritized the convention for reveals and announcements, it isn’t shocking that attendance has grown so significantly. This year alone, the Gundam franchise made several announcements, the latest Sword Art Online anime revealed its English dub cast as did Megalobox, and there was even a Hunter x Hunter announcement. That’s just scratching the surface, and given the impressive year-to-year growth, Anime NYC 2019 is likely to be even more exciting.

In fact, it would appear that there are already significant changes in the works.

“I’m proud of everything that was achieved this year, but I also know there were challenges,” Tatara wrote in a Facebook update celebrating after the close of the most recent event. “Our queue plan on Friday didn’t work, and we built a new plan for both Saturday and Sunday. And, overall, Anime NYC welcomed a lot more people, meaning it was a lot more crowded. Looking to next year, we’re adding a whole new Hall – 3B – which will double our exhibit space and offer a lot more room. As we grow, the Anime NYC experience has to remain positive and fun.”

What do you think of the attendance numbers? Did you go to the show, or are you now more likely to do so? Let us know in the comments!

Anime NYC 2019 is currently scheduled to run from November 15 to 17, 2019.