This year's attendance
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Posted by lore seeker brumcg
#76

brumcg wrote:
When I looked at the data on June 1, Pathfinder went from 5521 seats in 2019 to 1916 seats in 2022.
I do think it's possible that they new about the GM shortage before most publishers did.

GM shortage? As in, Gen Con didn't have enough GMs this year?

Posted by brumcg lore seeker
#77

father bloodlust wrote:GM shortage? As in, Gen Con didn't have enough GMs this year?
Oh, no.  Gen Con doesn't supply the GMs.

There have been several publishers begging for GMs on social media.  Magpie had to cancel almost 100 events.  I've heard that Paizo is really organized, and I'm suggesting they might have known about the GM situation early and allocated the number of events/seats they could manage.

Posted by brooks armadilloal
#78

armadilloal wrote:
brooks wrote:
hobbun wrote:
I can't speak for attendance, but if it's lower its not showing in easy accessibility for events. I have never had as much issue as this year in getting PFS events. 
I got one ticket because I was continually checking the catalog for returns and tickets for the Saturday night Special only because they opened more tables.
Have never had as much difficulty before this year.

I wonder if there are a lot fewer Society events this year. Just going by the space, the used to take over the entire Sagamore Ballroom. This year it looks like they only have about half of that space. 

Gen Con took that space for the vaccine check stations.  Whether they put the vaccine stations there because they knew Paizo wouldn't need the whole ballroom or Paizo didn't get the whole ballroom because the vaccine stations were there, I couldn't tell you.

I don't think Gen Con "thieved" the space from Paizo. I'd guess Paizo knew they wouldn't need the entire Sagamore this year due to the number of events they'll be running. Also in the Sagamore is Starship Horizons, Kill Team Live, and MHE Workshops. 

Posted by hobbun brumcg
#79

brumcg wrote:
When I looked at the data on June 1, Pathfinder went from 5521 seats in 2019 to 1916 seats in 2022.
I do think it's possible that they new about the GM shortage before most publishers did.

Oh wow, that's a big difference. I knew there were less tables ( and one less player per table), but just over only 1/3 the previous available amount of seats explains it.

Posted by kertdawg
#80

After seeing the first 2 days, I believe the 35-40k prediction was low. Does anyone have any other observations? 

Posted by austicke
#81

The local news is sharing Visit Indy’s prediction of 60-65k.

Posted by mikeboozer kertdawg
#82

kertdawg wrote:
After seeing the first 2 days, I believe the 35-40k prediction was low. Does anyone have any other observations? 

That is very low!

Posted by hahnarama
#83

50,000.... the one time I was in the Hall on Saturday it felt like only 40,000

Posted by nytenor
#84

Cue press release: https://www.gencon.com/press/post-show-2023

Posted by hauntedcity
#85

Interesting: "over 50,000". 
It's also interesting how crowds will distribute. I was absolutely overwhelmed in the dealer hall on Friday and Saturday. It was possibly the biggest congestion I've ever experienced at Gen Con.
But then Saturday and Sunday were easier to move around. Maybe my Thurs & Fri experiences were just bad luck: wrong place at wrong time.

Anyway, it was great being back at Gen Con!  We attended last year and had a wonderful time, but the dealer hall was light.  

Posted by kevinrg nytenor
#86


My 47500 estimate by analysis was pretty good then.

Posted by quarex
#87

Yeah I came here to say I had hyped up your excellent prediction and the methods you used, haha.  Looks like as expected by most (... attendees) the "draconian requirements" were entirely compatible with a successful return to big crowds.  I barely noticed having my mask on, at least when not needing to adjust it or put it back on, and I was even talking into a microphone half the time. 

I mean, that said, obviously nobody would mind if things are great next year and we do not need them, but it worked fine. 

Posted by toxic_rat quarex
#88

quarex wrote:
I mean, that said, obviously nobody would mind if things are great next year and we do not need them, but it worked fine. 

It did work, but "fine" is a relative term.  There is a lot of negative feelings about it in the "Good/Bad/Ugly" thread.

Posted by wavester lore seeker
#89

father bloodlust wrote:
brumcg wrote:
When I looked at the data on June 1, Pathfinder went from 5521 seats in 2019 to 1916 seats in 2022.
I do think it's possible that they new about the GM shortage before most publishers did.

GM shortage? As in, Gen Con didn't have enough GMs this year?

Oh ya. Finding DM's this year was rough. Between those not willing to get vaccinated (I have no use for them - they were a minority) and those that just have Covid Fatigue (they are vaccinated but just tired and have decided to just stay home until they don't have to do all the 'things' anymore) it was rough at times.

D&D Numbers

2019 - 5,250 tickets - sat 5,997 players (because we rock like Winger)
2020 - Dave had a really boring August - it was weird
2021 - 1,765 tickets - sat 1,851 players (even Covid cannot stop the power of Kip Winger)
2022 - 2,448 tickets - sat 2,376 players (no-shows killed us - baby Winger is crying) - this also does not count any Demo or ad-hoc learn to play games

So we did take a big step forward this year from last, which compared to the problems many were having I will take as a major win, but we are still about half-powered compared to 2019 which we use in all our show benchmarks as the 'last normal year'. Hopefully we'll take another huge step forward next year on our road to return to 'the new normal'. 

Posted by hauntedcity wavester
#90

wavester wrote:
Oh ya. Finding DM's this year was rough. Between those not willing to get vaccinated (I have no use for them - they were a minority) and those that just have Covid Fatigue (they are vaccinated but just tired and have decided to just stay home until they don't have to do all the 'things' anymore) it was rough at times.D&D Numbers
2019 - 5,250 tickets - sat 5,997 players (because we rock like Winger)
2020 - Dave had a really boring August - it was weird
2021 - 1,765 tickets - sat 1,851 players (even Covid cannot stop the power of Kip Winger)
2022 - 2,448 tickets - sat 2,376 players (no-shows killed us - baby Winger is crying) - this also does not count any Demo or ad-hoc learn to play games
So we did take a big step forward this year from last, which compared to the problems many were having I will take as a major win, but we are still about half-powered compared to 2019 which we use in all our show benchmarks as the 'last normal year'. Hopefully we'll take another huge step forward next year on our road to return to 'the new normal'. 

Thanks for the info. It's very interesting.  I'm guessing that fewer events made it seem crazy crowded at time, even with the lesser attendance from 2019.

The crowd flow seemed to fluctuate much more than previous years. As I said above, I had times on Thurs or Fri where the dealer hall crowd seemed to match Saturdays of previous years. Then I had long stretches on Sat and Sun where I could stroll unimpeded down walkways.  There was always a little of that, but it was extra noticeable this year.

The most important thing was that my family had a great time this year!  We will be back again next year, maskful or maskless.

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