World Webtoon Festival 2025 Draws Over 210,000 to Seoul
The 2025 World Webtoon Festival took place in Seoul from October 19 to 22 and drew roughly 210,000 visitors across all its related events. The festival was organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and hosted by the Korea Creative Content Agency, with the broader goal of celebrating South Korea’s role in shaping the global webtoon industry.
Alongside the main event, a pop-up exhibition ran for 11 days from October 16 to 26 at Lotte World Mall. Twelve companies participated, including Naver Webtoon, Daon Creative, D&C MEDIA, Redice Studio, Seoul Media Comics, MStoryHub, and YLAB, among others. Together they showcased character goods and limited-edition merchandise tied to 35 webtoon properties. Around 42,000 people showed up on opening day alone, and the average visitor spent about US$33. The highest individual purchase reached approximately US$2,500.
The main four-day exhibition and stage programs brought about 97,000 people to the Webtoon World area. The exhibition carried the theme “The Past, Present, and Future of Webtoons” and highlighted over 200 webtoon titles, including examples of how they have expanded into film, stage performances, and games.
The second annual World Webtoon Awards ceremony was also held as part of the event.
My take: Numbers like 210,000 visitors and merchandise spending in the thousands per person tell a pretty clear story about how seriously people around the world have come to take webtoons. It is not just a reading hobby anymore; it has become a full cultural ecosystem, and South Korea is leaning into that with real conviction.
