News
Anime Expo Reports Record 80,000 Unique Attendees, Addresses Registration Issues
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Anime Expo announced last month that this year's event set a new record for attendance with over 80,000 unique attendees and turnstile attendance of over 220,000. It reported over 61,000 unique attendees and a turnstile attendance of over 161,000 last year.
Anime Expo reported over 49,400 unique attendees and a turnstile attendance of over 130,000 in 2012, and 47,000 unique attendees and a turnstile attendance of over 128,000 in 2011. Former SPJA CEO Michael Lattanzio had announced that the convention had a turnstile attendance of over 105,000 in 2010. 2009's listed attendance numbers were over 109,000 (turnstile) and over 44,000 (unique).
"Unique attendees" is the number of attendees regardless of how many days they attend, so a person who uses a four-day pass is counted once. "Turnstile attendance" is the number of attendees on each day added together, so a person who uses a four-day pass is counted four times.
Due to the 30% growth in attendance, the convention is re-evaluating its procedures to accommodate a larger audience. Starting next year, Anime Expo will mail Premier Fan badges and allocate more space to on-site badge pick-up to decrease wait time. Registration will also open earlier and stay later. Overall the convention wants to streamline registration lines so wait time is never longer than 90 minutes.
This year's Anime Expo was held July 3-6 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Technical difficulties led to attendees waiting several hours for registration on Day 0, with registration lasting until midnight that day. The convention then stopped accepting new registrations on July 5 since it reached capacity.
