Anime conventions have now become popular "tourist destinations" that young people eagerly visit. According to incomplete statistics, during this year's Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday period, the country will host at least 413 anime conventions, covering almost all provinces. Large-scale anime conventions attract tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of visitors, with out-of-town tourists making special trips and companies entering the market across industries. What exactly is the appeal of anime conventions?

**Over 400 Anime Conventions Nationwide During Mid-Autumn and National Day Holidays**

From October 2-3, Wonder Festival (WF) 2025, hosted by Bilibili Inc., was held in Shanghai. According to information, WF is the world's largest figurine and model exhibition, originally organized by Japanese toy manufacturer Kaiyodo. In January 2024, Bilibili Inc. partnered with Kaiyodo to obtain exclusive hosting rights for WF in mainland China. The WF 2024 event held in Shanghai from October 2-3, 2024, attracted 100,000 visitors.

On September 25, it was observed on Bilibili Inc.'s official website that WF 2025 regular tickets priced at 120 yuan and VIP tickets at 580 yuan were both sold out. A Bilibili Inc. representative stated that WF 2025 saw corporate exhibitors and individual creators increase by 33% and 11% respectively; the number of copyrighted works doubled compared to last year; available ticket quantities increased by 20% year-on-year, with first-day tickets selling out in 4 minutes, setting new records for both scale and popularity.

According to data provided by Bilibili Inc., WF 2025 featured over 400 corporate exhibitors, over 2,000 individual exhibitors, and more than 100,000 exhibition items. Online platforms also saw numerous purchasing agents helping anime enthusiasts who couldn't attend WF 2025 in person. Information gathered from some purchasing agents revealed that their orders were already "very high," with some figurines being "too popular to handle." For example, a figurine originally priced at 1,680 yuan by an individual creator has been scalped to 7,000-8,000 yuan, and there's "definitely no hope of buying it."

From October 7-8, Comicup 2025 Shanghai Plus (CPSP), also held in Shanghai, similarly experienced rapid ticket sellouts. According to Ctrip data, by the end of September, hotel and guesthouse booking orders near the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), where CPSP was held, increased by 524% year-on-year for October 6-8.

There were many similar "two-dimensional" themed exhibitions during the Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays. According to incomplete statistics, from October 1-8, the country hosted at least 413 anime conventions, including commercial exhibitions and fan conventions. From a geographical distribution perspective, anime conventions weren't exclusive to first-tier cities, with almost all provinces hosting conventions during the holiday period. Among the statistics, first-tier and new first-tier cities hosted a combined 157 conventions, accounting for approximately 38% of the total. "Small city anime conventions" also occupied a considerable proportion, with third-tier cities and below accounting for 24.9% of conventions.

**Why Are Young People Enthusiastic About Visiting Anime Conventions?**

Hager (pseudonym), a Beijing event organizer who has been in the anime convention industry for nearly 14 years, explained that young people love visiting anime conventions because anime enthusiasts are primarily young people who want to establish a venue for communicating with like-minded individuals.

"Face-to-face offline communication is an experience that the internet can hardly replace. Especially for younger anime enthusiasts, they have strong social needs. Regardless of the format, everyone gathering together and discussing things they like is a form of entertainment for young people," Hager said.

The consumption generated by anime conventions is also substantial. According to the official public account of Firefly Animation and Gaming Carnival, the three Firefly anime conventions held during this year's Spring Festival, May Day holiday, and summer period attracted 200,000, 180,000, and 288,300 visitors respectively. The summer convention, lasting 4 days, drove regional consumption exceeding 180 million yuan, with 31.09% of visitors being inter-provincial tourists.

According to data disclosed by Firefly anime conventions in August, visitors spent an average of 663 yuan per person at exhibitions, with 18% of visitors spending over 1,000 yuan. This year's May Comicup exhibition CP31 in Hangzhou attracted over 160,000 visitors. In July, BilibiliWorld 2025 (BW) attracted 400,000 attendees, a 60% year-on-year increase, with visitors coming from over 20 countries and regions.

According to Meituan Travel data, during the BW anime convention, hundreds of thousands of "post-2000s" flocked to Shanghai, with nationwide flight bookings to Shanghai increasing by 50%, hotel bookings near the venue rising nearly 5-fold year-on-year, and related cultural tourism orders increasing by 35%. In August, 2025 ChinaJoy attracted over 410,000 visitors, with out-of-town visitors accounting for 61% and visitors aged 24 and under comprising 43%.

The minimum ticket prices for summer Firefly anime conventions, CP31, and BW 2025 were 85 yuan, 98 yuan, and 128 yuan respectively. Calculated at minimum ticket prices, these conventions each generated ticket revenues exceeding 10 million yuan.

According to Hager, commercial anime conventions primarily rely on ticket sales and brand sponsorships for revenue, with costs including venues, security, supporting services, promotion, and guests. Influential guests (such as voice actors, content creators, cosplayers) attract their fans to purchase tickets, becoming a stable revenue source.

In February's BW 2025 sponsorship information, sponsorship categories mainly included chief sponsorship, industry sponsorship, single-brand booths, and IP licensing cooperation, with numerous companies like Chow Tai Fook, Fanta, Kotex, and AITO appearing at the convention. Similarly, Firefly and other anime conventions also featured brands from various industries including fast-moving consumer goods, automotive, and hospitality.

Currently, Hager's company has only about ten members, some of whom work part-time. According to Hager, this is already "considered having many people" in the anime convention industry. She stated that non-leading brands or large companies in the anime convention industry still find it relatively difficult to achieve profitability solely through organizing anime conventions, often requiring other business activities besides the conventions themselves. Currently, Hager's company's exhibitions attract single-day attendance of about 8,000-10,000 people. If this November's event proceeds smoothly, it may achieve profitability.

iiMedia Research data shows that China's pan-anime user base continues to grow annually, reaching 503 million in 2024, with projections of 570 million by 2029. China's pan-anime and peripheral market size also shows an upward trend year by year, reaching 597.7 billion yuan in 2024, with expectations of reaching 834.4 billion yuan by 2029.

Jiang Han, senior researcher at Pangoal Institution, stated that in the current business environment of severe homogeneous competition, traditional retail and service formats face declining foot traffic and insufficient user stickiness. Two-dimensional culture inherently carries high emotional density and strong community attributes, capable of injecting differentiated content into commercial entities and reconstructing consumption scenarios.

"Two-dimensional enthusiasts demonstrate the strongest willingness to 'pay for emotional value.' Their consumption decisions are more driven by 'flow experiences' and 'fantasy compensation' rather than pragmatism. Against the backdrop of continuously rising spiritual consumption proportions, this group has become the most stable and predictable high-value customer segment in the emotional economy, possessing extremely strong industrial monetization potential," Jiang said.