The first international edition of San Diego Comic-Con broke sales records of tickets and attracted almost 100,000 people to Malaga. The organization, however, received abundant criticism: capacity to the limit, queues that lasted hours and more than 550 complaints accumulated by consumer associations. Now comes a change of direction and, with it, a new opportunity to prove that pop culture’s biggest event can work outside of California.
The first Comic-Con outside the US The mere news that Málaga would host the first international edition generated an expectation which translated into instant sales: three of the four days of the event were sold out in less than 24 hours at 50 euros per day. And there were still no guests. When these they started to advertise (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Antonio Banderas, Elle Fanning, Jared Leto or the composer of ‘Final Fantasy’ Nobuo Uematsu, among more than thirty international guests) the first criticisms intensified: it was not an event for fans, like its original namesake, but rather oriented completely to the mainstream.
Some figures. The official statement announcing the first plans for 2027 takes stock of last year and speaks of 95,784 attendees over four days, with an economic impact of 44.3 million euros and the participation of more than 110 exhibitors and brands such as Disney, Nintendo, Lego and Bandai Namco. Here we find the first discrepancies with the past: the Malaga City Council announced at the time that attendance had been greater than 120,000 people (thus exceeding the 30,000 daily visitors admitted to the Trade Fair Palace). 25,000 visitors difference in the information that the organization does not explain now, nor is there any mention of the more than 550 consultations accumulated by Facua and OCU to file claims.
Changes in the organization. Implicitly admitting that there are issues to improve, a change has also been communicated to the front of the event. Fernando Piquer assumes general management, replacing Javier Barberá. His profile is striking: founder and CEO of Movistar Riders, one of the most recognized esports teams in Spain, and responsible for the Global Strategy of Movistar KOI before this new assignment, he has no previous connection with the world of comics or fandom, which has already generated the first criticism.
However, his choice makes sense: large esports festivals have served in the last decade as a laboratory for managing massive events, with young audiences, a festive atmosphere and large numbers of people in closed venues. These are events used to digitally managing massive influxes: digital accreditation systems, capacity control by zones, staggered time slots, computerized queue management, all of this is applied today to entertainment fairs. The question remains for the 2026 edition about content and guests, but a good team should solve that problem.
Possible solutions. Massive and comparable events such as Gamescom in Cologne or Paris Games Week have incorporated ticket systems by time slots, official apps that show crowd saturation maps divided into pavilions, and there are organizational teams dedicated exclusively to managing access flows. It is also worth reviewing the prohibitions on bringing water and food to the event, given the saturation that occurred at the food stalls and fountains.
They are technical problems that have been identified and that can be solved: the next step should be announcements in that direction, especially considering that criticism of the event in terms of organization was widespread.
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