Gen Con 2016 Attendance Numbers Hold; Provide Greatest Economic Impact of all of Indianapolis’ Conventions

09 Aug

Posted by Thomas Deeny as Card Games, CCGs, Miniatures, Modern Board Games, RPGs, War Games

Did Gen Con Indy seem even more crowded this year? That’s because of the turnstile attendance, which measures the number of people attending the show each day. The 2015 show had 197,605 admissions throughout the show; this year the numbers increased about 2.5% to 201,852. However, the unique attendance numbers were slightly down — instead of 61,423 people attending last year, Gen Con 2016 had 604 fewer people attend. Of the 60,819 attendees, a slightly larger percentage of them purchased full 4-Day passes than in the previous year.

Leonard Hoops — the head of Visit Indy, the city of Indianapolis’ tourism board — said that the gaming convention “drives more than $67 million in annual economic activity” to the city, with past conventions bringing in “more than $50 million” in 2014 and $47 million in 2013. This year, he estimated the impact of the convention at $71 million.

While still a large number, with the return of the Future Farmers of America’s convention to Indianapolis in October, Gen Con won’t be the largest show in town. “Indiana is ready and committed to support this event and welcome with open arms the 64,000 FFA members who will come to our capital city each of the next nine years,” said Governor Mike Pence. However, Mayor Greg Ballard stated that the National FFA convention has an “estimated $36 million in annual economic activity” for the city, about half of Gen Con’s.

Gen Con has a contract with the the convention center through 2020. The 50th Gen Con convention will be held in Indianapolis, August 17-20, 2017.