Anime NYC has quickly grown to be one of the largest anime conventions in North America. The most recent event held August 21-24, 2025 grew by an astounding 50% from last year, going from 101,000 attendees to a record 148,000 attendees. It was also the first year it offered four days instead of three. It seems like it's catching up to Anime Expo (AX) in Los Angeles. Currently, AX is the largest anime convention in North America, a title it's held since 2003. Is 148k attendees enough to unseat AX as number one? Let's take a closer look.
Click here to watch the Anime NYC 2025 video on YouTube.
By The Numbers
One hundred and forty-eight thousand attendees sounds like a huge number, but let's dig deeper. I asked the press coordinator for details and learned that this is a turnstile number and not unique attendees. The press release didn't specify. This means it's a count of the number of people who entered the building over the weekend and not unique attendees. While this looks impressive it doesn't tell the truth about how many people actually attended. Was it 75k, 100k, or 148k unique attendees?
A turnstile count of 148k could look like 25k attendees on Thursday, 45k on Friday, 60k on Saturday, and 23k on Sunday. These are made up numbers to show how turnstile counts work - the total number of people in the building each day. In this example we can say there were at least 60k unique attendees, and likely more given the fact that not everyone attended on Saturday. People might have attended all four days, boosting the turnstile count, but not the unique attendee count. Anime NYC knows how many badges were sold, but they don't know how many unique individuals actually attended. Anime NYC badges don't have RFID and attendees don't need to scan them to enter or exit the building.
In comparison, Anime Expo announced a record breaking attendance of 410,000 attendees for its 2025 convention! The official release clearly states that this is a turnstile count, so again we don't know the exact number of unique attendees.
Anime Expo badges do have RFID and attendees have to scan them to enter and exit the building, so they could tell us not only how many badges were purchased but how many actually reached the building and on which days. That information was not shared in the public announcement. You can read it for yourself here.
Not Just About Numbers
Of course it's not just about the numbers. Events like this offer many features and activities which one could use to judge its impact. The number of vendors, artists, domestic guests, foreign guests, concerts, hours of programming, and even the number of food trucks can all be used as metrics. For this attendee, the vendor hall was very telling. While it is certainly large and had a great number of vendors, it didn't have quite the same level of impact. Booths from the two largest vendors, Crunchyroll and Bandai, were scaled down compared to their booths at Anime Expo. They were physically smaller and not nearly as impressive. The Crunchyroll booth at AX was particularly impressive this year with its orange colored illuminated columns leading visitors inside.
It's difficult to get an exact count of vendors at either convention. The show floor at Anime NYC was shared by vendors, artists, guest booths, as well as some food vendors. All-in-all it is a very large space. AX, however, had its main hall filled with vendors, the artist alley which occupied its own massive space, a second hall which had more vendors and some gaming, and an entire street filled with food vendors. Added up, AX also won in these categories.
When it comes to guests, Anime Expo also takes the lead. It has guests from around the world in multiple areas of entertainment. Producers, voice actors, musicians and performers, cosplayers and more. Anime Expo has an almost magnetic appeal which draws in people from the other side of the planet, whether they are official guests or not. For many foreigners, AX is the only North American event they attend.
A Clear Winner
There's a clear winner in the fight for anime convention supremacy. Anime Expo is bigger, more renowned, and gathers more attention than any other anime convention in North America. It's one of the longest running cons, having started in 1992 versus Anime NYC which only started in 2017.
Why The Competition?
Why turn these conventions into a competition of who's bigger or better? The purpose of a convention is to bring together people with common interests. The more a convention has to offer, the bigger and hopefully better it will be. Both of these events have all the ingredients necessary to become large and successful. They are held in massive metropolitan cities, with New York and Los Angeles being the two largest cities in North America. They have names which give us a good idea what the event is about - anime. Their names are also easy to read, pronounce, and spell.
You'd be surprised at how many cons fail at these basic ingredients. I once attended an anime convention called Ookisoracon. I kid you not. Try saying or spelling that. Now put it in front of someone and have them guess what it is. This tiny anime convention was held in Helena, Montana, so it's not likely to become the next AX. Still, every convention should have the goal of growing its reach and seriously consider these simple ingredients. If you aren't reaching people, what are you even doing?
Competition is also good for attendees. It challenges the event to do more, try harder, and be better. Attendees benefit by getting to see more guests and having more programming and amenities. Without competition there's the potential for an event to lose focus and become complacent. With so many people in attendance there's a lot of money rolling in, so management could become lazy or greedy. There have been many cons of no small size who almost went out of business due to mismanagement. I'm looking at you Otakon.
What Really Matters
Setting aside comparisons with Anime Expo, Anime NYC has every opportunity to be a great con, if it isn't already. It's operated by LeftField Media which also founded New York Comic Con, so they know how to run a successful event. Anime NYC involves the cosplay community by granting members with free creator badges. This creates a grass roots effect with cosplayers generating interest in the con. Many photographers and videographers such as myself are granted press badges to help document the event. The presence of so many food vendors and food trucks is another indicator of an event which is trying to please its attendees. It shows effort and understanding of what people want. From vendors and guests to basic creature comforts, they aren't just a faceless corporation trying to spin a profit. They are trying to engage anime fans and to show them a good time.
How Hard Is It To Attend?
New York City is notoriously expensive. The cost of living is very high. Hotels are expensive. Compared to other cons, Anime NYC isn't very affordable. That's certainly a factor for potential anime attendees who typically have limited funds. The average anime convention attendee is in their twenties and likely doesn't have much in the way of disposable income. They have to make conscious decisions around which events they attend and a large part of that involves getting there and staying there.
There are many options for traveling to Anime NYC. There are trains and boats to Manhattan and the famous New York Subway once you're there. Driving is an option, but parking is likely expensive and difficult to find. Most drivers park outside of Manhattan and take public transit to the convention center.
If you're like me and you have to fly there, you have many options. There are no less than three large airports nearby - JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark. There are many flight options from multiple carriers and the prices aren't terrible if you book them early enough.
The convention has a large number of hotels listed on its room block at varying prices. Unlike some conventions, there isn't a mad dash, Hunger Games type situation for this convention. Rooms are available up until the block closes around one month before the event. Unfortunately most of the hotels aren't very close to the Javits Convention Center. New York is very walkable though.
The Cosplayers
Of course no anime convention would be complete without cosplay. Anime Expo draws cosplayers from across the USA and beyond. The building is somewhat limited in its visible appeal, mostly giving techy space vibes with its glass and steel construction. That's just how it goes when you attend an event at a large civic convention center. The glass atrium, called the "Crystal Palace" is certainly impressive. The entire lobby is surrounded by glass soaring multiple stories into the air.
Special thanks to all these cosplayers for shooting with me and a big thank you to my sponsor Fansly.
Fansly creators have a special Fansly logo 
next to their handle with a link to their account (18+ NSFW content).
next to their handle with a link to their account (18+ NSFW content).
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