Interest

Blue Archive, VTubers Take Top Spots Among Comic Market 106's Booths

On June 6, the self-described Genre Code Tankentai (Genre Code Lovers or literally, Genre Code Expedition) released the unofficial count of fan circle booths for the next Comic Market, Japan's largest event for selling self-published dōjinshi works. According to the tallies pulled from the event's online catalog, 22,760 circles will participate at Comiket 106 this August. This is about a 26% drop from Comiket 105's total of 28,763 last December. However, Comiket 104 in August 2024 saw similar total participants as Comiket 106, at 23,858. (Comic Market usually has lower attendance during its summer events compared to the winter ones.)

Each fan circle must enter a genre or fandom category when registering for a booth, and Genre Code Tankentai measured how each category is growing or shrinking from Comket 104 and 105, both in raw numbers and in the percentage share of the event's entire total.

For Comiket 106, the VTubers take the top spot among genre categories with 1,432 booths or 6.29% of the tiotal, followed by net and social games at 1,272 booths or 5.59%. Among specific titles, the Blue Archive game and tie-in anime maintained the top spot for the fourth Comiket in a row, with 1,842 booths or 8.09%, followed by the Uma Musume game and anime franchise at 796 booths or 3.50%.

Blue Archive has a relatively open derivative works policy for fans, which contributes to the strong presence at the biannual event. According to the Blue Archive website, Nexon allows individuals or corporations to make non-commercial derivative works of Blue Archive. Unfortunately, Nexon states the rules only apply to Japan.

Sources: Blue Archive's website (link 2), Genre Code Lovers' X/Twitter account via Yaraon!