Otakon 2026 Sets Record With 47,049 Fans in D.C.

Otakorp has closed the books on Otakon 2026, and the numbers are loud: 47,049 total memberships and credentials poured into the Walter E. Washington Convention Center from July 31 through August 2. That’s roughly three thousand more than last year’s haul and edges past the previous high of about 46,000 set during the con’s 30th-anniversary run in 2024. The tally folds in pre-reg, at-door buyers, staff, dealers, artists, industry, guests, and press, with a final audit still free to tweak the figure slightly.

This year’s Swords and Sorcery frame turned the floor into a mash-up of steel and spectacle. Square Enix leaned in hard—Final Fantasy XIV job-class badges, localization star Michael-Christopher Koji Fox on stage, and the weekend’s centerpiece concert The Music of Square Enix—while Sunday morning gave Jump fans a rare East Coast look at the Kagurabachi Anime World Tour, screening the first twenty minutes of Episode 1 plus a staff panel before the April 2027 Crunchyroll debut.

Con chair Victoria MacEntee framed the weekend as another “memorable, record-breaking” guild meetup and immediately pivoted to next year’s dates: August 6–8, 2027, still in D.C., under the new theme Summerween. The first 2027 guests are already locked—John Eric Bentley (Barrett from Final Fantasy VII Remake), Emi Lo (Lucy in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners), and Kaiji Tang (Gojo in Jujutsu Kaisen)—so the spooky summer sequel has a head start before the badges even go on sale.

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