Phoenix Fan Fusion 2025 is in the rearview, and it was one for the record books.
Square Egg Entertainment, the company behind the annual pop culture and comic con, announced Monday that Phoenix Fan Fusion 2025 has a record-breaking attendance of 130,145 people over its three-day run from June 6 to 8 at the Phoenix Convention Center.
It marks the largest turnout in the convention’s history, shattering the previous record of 106,096 set in 2016 — back when it was still known as Phoenix Comicon. It also more than doubled last year’s attendance, which Fan Fusion convention director Joe Boudrie told Phoenix New Times was “around 52,000.”
If you were at Fan Fusion 2025, the news probably isn’t that much of a shock.
The Phoenix Convention Center was teeming with huge crowds during the first two days, featuring some of the event’s biggest celebrity guests ever — including “Star Wars” actor Hayden Christensen, Oscar winner Marisa Tomei, and the actors who played the four main hobbits from “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Panels showcasing the con’s highest-profile guests were packed to capacity.
Saturday, typically Fan Fusion’s busiest day, drew especially massive crowds. By the afternoon, major bottlenecks had formed on the first floor of the North Building and at the entrance to the lower level of the exhibitor hall.
The third floor was also bustling, thanks to Fan Fusion’s new Game Tabletopia. The expansive space, which made its debut this year, focused on board, card and tabletop gaming.
Fan Fusion 2025’s record crowds mark a turnaround from reduced attendance in the years following its peak in 2016. Attendance dipped to 57,853 in 2018, the year the event was temporarily renamed Phoenix Comic Fest to prevent any potential legal action by the San Diego Comic-Con. Following a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Fan Fusion’s attendance shrank as the event rebounded.
Prior to this year’s event, Boudrie told Phoenix New Times record-breaking attendance was something he’d “love to see again someday.”
As it turns out, he didn’t have to wait long.
An enormous crowd inside the Phoenix Convention Center's North Building on the second day of Phoenix Fan Fusion 2025.
Benjamin Leatherman
Audio By Carbonatix
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