World Webtoon Festival Opens to Massive Crowds in Seoul

The 2025 World Webtoon Festival kicked off on October 19 at Lotte Town in Jamsil, Seoul, attracting an impressive 42,000 visitors on its opening day.

According to the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), over 200,000 people are expected to attend during the four-day event, marking a 2.5-fold increase from last year.

The festival aims to bring mobile webtoon content into physical spaces, showcasing the global competitiveness of the K-webtoon industry. Exhibits span over a century of Korean comic and webtoon history — from political cartoons of the 1910s to digital webtoons of the 2000s — allowing visitors to experience the evolution of the medium through live drawing shows and hands-on workshops.

Pop-up stores for hit titles such as Lookism, What It Means to Be You, The Remarried Empress, and Maru is a Puppy were fully booked in advance, demonstrating the massive popularity of K-webtoons. These collaborations with fashion, fragrance, and F&B brands also highlight the growing potential for webtoon IP commercialization.

Industry experts view the event as a major step toward creating a global festival that embodies K-webtoon identity.

Veteran webtoon artist Lee Jong Beom remarked, “If the festival establishes its own brand identity like New York Comic Con, it could become the representative global event for K-webtoons.”