January 1, 2004
Ten largest North American anime conventions of 2003
by Patrick DelahantyAnimeCons.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.
- Otakon: 17,338 paid (17,685 estimated total)
- Anime Expo: 17,000 estimated total
- Big Apple Anime Fest: 12,832 people*
- A-Kon: 7,413 people
- Anime Central: 6,190 people
- FanimeCon: 5,400 people
- Anime North: 4,875 people
- Anime Weekend Atlanta: 4,584 people
- Anime Boston: 4,110 total
- 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.
