ThePokemonNAIC was bigger than ever in 2025, reaching a new peak attendance. With ever-rising participation in the event year after year, it takes more and more from organizers to make sure thePokemonNAIC will meet expectations.
The 2025PokemonNAICsaw numbers continue to climb for the event, marking the second-biggest Western event in the competition’s history. Moreover, the event saw a greater number of attendees compared to 2024, which itself saw a new rise over 2023. It’s a good sign for the scene to see these events return to such an upswing, but it’s no doubt a challenging task. Game Rant recently spoke with TPCi director Chris Brown about how the event approaches this ever-climbing attendance.
Pokemon NAIC 2025’s Rising Attendance Explained
Planning For A Growing Event
Discussing risingattendance atPokemoneSports events, Brown outlined how the team was able to plan for such an increase. First, Brown said that the NAIC still casts a wide net for qualifications because it is a core part of the event, with NAIC still “qualifying almost 3000 players globally across our four game pillars.” Doing so only increases non-competitive attendance as well, but that’s part of balancing it all. As Brown said, “We’re unique in that we’re very generous in how deep we go with the number of players that can qualify per age division, per market.”
Brown called facilitating that influx ofdifferent types of competitivePokemonplayersand attendees a “balancing act.” Logistically, there has to be a cutoff for everything, and deciding that plays into the overall logistical viability. One way Brown and the team tackle this challenge is planning years out:
“We have to book the world championships years out—the space, the floor plans, even things like how many welcome kits somebody gets. One of our challenges at the point bar was we could not actually fully predict how many people would be there. Sometimes, we didn’t set our floor plans until five weeks before the show, and we had to really over-order things like our welcome kits to make sure that there was one for every player, which sometimes led to an incredible amount of waste. Those are the logistical details that the players don’t necessarily think about, but they’re why we sort of necessitated this change in the system too.”
While the growing level of attendance proved to be a struggle, the event has had the benefit of consistent venues. In the case of 2025, the event returned to New Orleans, which Brown found to be a great asset for planning the NAIC.
“From an event operation standpoint, obviously it’s a lot easier the second time you do a show in the same location. It’s a sort of ‘Oh, here was our floorplan last year, we’ll make this change,’ so right away most attendees are probably noticing a little bit more of a smoother experience this year. That’s just because we’re not figuring out their operations for the first time in a new location.”
In addition, the event has become increasingly accessible tonon-competitivePokemonplayers. Brown outlined the “side events” that have become available over the years for those not playing, such as origami, coloring, scavenger hunts, and demos ofgames likePokemon Scarlet and Violet.
Pokemon
Pokemon is a franchise that needs no introduction. One of the most successful media empires in history, Pokemon spans games, television, films, manga, merchandise, music, and more.
