Looking Back at Furry Conventions in 2023

2023 turned out to be an incredible year for furry convention growth, with many conventions seeing unprecedented growth rates. 

Midwest FurFest was the largest convention yet again with an impressive 15,547 attendees. They also, for the second time, managed to raise over $100,000 for their charity! Joining the very impressive club of furry conventions that raised over $100,000 for their charity in 2023 was Furry Weekend Atlanta, which saw a massive growth rate of 41.25% and also joined the over-10,000-attendees club. 

Anthrocon held fast to its second-largest furry convention title, seeing a massive growth rate of 40.63%.

We will do a deeper dive into growth rates later in this article.

Like 2022, the top five largest conventions were all over 5,000 attendees, but in 2023 Megaplex also joined the above-5000-attendees club.  Seventeen conventions saw over 2,000 attendees. Forty-seven conventions had over 1,000 attendees, nearly doubling the number of furry conventions that achieved this landmark in 2022.

In 2023, by our count, 109 furry conventions took place. We did our best to get the attendance number for them all but we were unable to get the attendance number for twenty-seven of them. We will continue to try to get these numbers (and all numbers we don’t have) and update our Master Spreadsheet (linked at end of article) if we get them.

2023 saw the debut of five brand new furry conventions. These conventions were Pörröcon, Keep Tahoe Furry, Furcationland, Las Vegas Fur Con, and NomadiCon. Pörröcon took place in Finland, and its 2024 iteration is scheduled to happen in May. We were unable to get any information on the 2023 Keep Tahoe Furry event, and it is unclear if it will be occurring again in 2024. Furcationland in Portland, Maine, and Las Vegas Fur Con in Las Vegas, Nevada, happened on the same weekend, and both pulled huge first-year convention numbers, solidifying both as new staple conventions in their respective areas. They luckily will not take place on the same weekend in 2024. NomadiCon took place in Nashville, Tennessee, and was an 18+ convention, a concept that has developed over the last few years. They have not announced dates for 2024 yet.

The Furry Fandom has exploded in growth in the last decade, many people finding and joining the fandom during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Looking at graphs of how that growth has affected furry conventions in 2023 is truly fascinating.

The growth of a handful of the largest conventions was already trending upwards in a more exponential, non-linear fashion, especially around 2015. But since the break years conventions experienced as a result of COVID lockdown, the lines for many conventions have rocketed upwards. The above chart shows the largest conventions, but let’s dive into the positive growth rates themselves from 2022 to 2023.

As you can see, 2023 saw truly unprecedented growth all over the globe. A 10% growth rate from year to year had always been considered a very successful rate for a furry convention, with many conventions growing at much slower rates. To see this many conventions at a well over 10% growth rate — let alone over 50% or over 100% — is wild! 

Asian furry communities in general have become far more active of late, seeing massive growth not only in their furry conventions, but also in their furmeets and how their regional fandom has crossed significantly into other regions. Many of their conventions are seeing more visitors from Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the Americas every year, with far more international overlap on social media as well. 

Canadian furry conventions have also seen massive growth, as there are far fewer across the vast country than can be found in the United States. But Canada has also seen massive spikes in regional furry populations similar to what the US has experienced. 

We are extremely excited to see what 2024 has in store for furry conventions. How many more new ones will spring up? Will any more furry conventions be able to raise more than $100,000 this year? Will any more conventions join the over-10,000-attendees club? How many more will breach 5,000 attendees?

We hope you found this article interesting, and that you perhaps learned of cons you hadn’t heard of before, or decided on a new one you’d like to attend. We also hope this will encourage you to help out your local convention, as all this growth means every furry convention needs more help to run them.

As always, if you have any data we are missing or know of any other new furry conventions or ones we have missed, please let us know! Our Master Convention Attendance spreadsheet has been updated as well so please enjoy going and doing your own research!

Public Master Copy of Furry Conventions Attendance Numbers: