Otakon 2025

Another Otakon has come and gone. Unfortunately, I can't really say too much about the convention itself because I ghosted the con 😦. Yep. I didn't even step foot inside the venue. Instead, I opted to work purely from inside the Marriott Marquis. This premier hotel features a beautiful atrium with marble floors and glass railings. It's a great place to make a cosplay music video. The Walter E. Washington convention center, on the other hand, is big and boxy and stiff. I've written about this multiple times in the past, so please peruse my past articles for more of the gritty details.

Perhaps the most notable thing about Otakon this year was the drop in attendance from 46,000 to 43,000. Naturally, Otakon was expecting to grow more this year given how their attendance has been growing since 2021. They were very proud of their growth over the past few years and they happily owned it. Now they have to own this loss.

The tone in the press release was disbelief as they almost immediately began to look for excuses for the drop, including suggesting the count might change as they try to get more accurate numbers. It's like the losing party in a political election doing a post mortem. Having been on the operational side of conventions, I always find this kind of stuff interesting. The goings on of a convention. The behind-the-scenes. What drives the decision making of a convention? How does a successful convention become less successful? I'm not saying Otakon isn't successful. It objectively is successful and sits on the list of the top ten largest anime conventions in North America. As for this year's drop in attendance, there could be any number of reasons why less people came. I asked my Instagram followers for their thoughts and got these replies: "Some people ghosted the con as I did, or only attended one day." "Overlap with other cons" "People are worried about their financial future." "People are hesitant to be in DC these days." "Personally, I just didn't have the money." "Costs. They have jumped costs so much and have had way less bang for the buck as well." "I'm personally not a fan of the venue. There's other cons with better spaces/better backdrops." "To me, cons are getting pricier every year, so I have to be selective and only go to a few." The general theme is cost. Inflation is up, wages are stagnant, and everyone has debt. Many people are struggling to meet basic needs like food and housing. It's just a tough time to indulge in an anime convention held in one of the most expensive cities in America. There was also a number of competing events around that time. Not just on the same weekend, but in the preceding or following weeks. Fan Expo Boston and Otakuthon were on the same weekend, Colossalcon Texas and Fan Expo Chicago the following week, and Anime NYC the week after that. It was a busy time for conventions and people only have so much time and money to spend. Given the choice, which con would you attend?

Cosplay at Otakon was on par despite the slight drop in attendance. Thanks to everyone who took the time to shoot with me.