The Growing Anime and Gaming Convention Dream Con Returns in July

Anime and gaming conventions are spread across the calendar in North Texas, but one convention that's seen a sizable amount of growth and popularity is returning to Arlington this summer.

The Dream Con gaming, anime and pop culture convention, built by the popular YouTube anime and gaming comedy channel RDCWorld1, based in Denton, returns to the Esports Stadium Arlington for a three-day gathering July 15-17.

The comedy group's annual gathering started in 2018 in Waco as a way to get into the convention circuit. RDCWorld1 has amassed a following of over 5.8 million subscribers with comedy videos and sketches that regularly get an average of 3 million views. Nevertheless, bigger conventions failed to see the interest in the group's following, so group member and event director Johnathan Newton says they just decided to build their own con.

"It got pretty big, and one of our main areas was anime that's popular with a lot of comic cons and conventions and stuff like that," Newton says. "It's crazy we were not getting invited. A lot of them didn't show too much interest in us, essentially. We went to a couple, and it was just too hard. That was the idea for Dream Con. Instead of trying to get into these others cons, why don't we just do one for us?"

The gathering in July will be RDCWorld1's third Dream Con, and the attendance has tripled since their first con in 2018. The first Dream Con had 1,200 people in attendance. This year, Newton says, they've had to cap the con at 6,000 people at the Esports Stadium now owned by the esports giant Envy Gaming, "so we don't know how much more would've happened."

The partnership with Esports Stadium Arlington is one that the venue has been trying to create since Dream Con started. Newton says they were hesitant about moving the con out of Waco, but the growing crowds forced them to find a bigger space to house the fans.

"We wanted to stay in Waco because that's where [RDCWorld1 founder Mark Phillips] is from," Newton says. "Then the event started to get a little big bigger than what we thought it was gonna be. There was a big jump in attendance. We really needed a bigger venue, and Waco didn't have too much to offer, and the stadium wanted to work with us so bad."  Dream Con offers a wide collection of pop interests that reflect the fandom built by the group's comedy channel, which satirizes anime, sports and gaming characters and tropes with a loving respect for the art form and medium. The group started making videos while Phillips went to college at the University of North Texas when the subscriber and viewer counts on YouTube and Instagram jumped thanks to clever sketches like This Was How Math Was Made, in which the origins of mathematics are driven by a drug-fueled brainstorm. The group moved into together and filmed videos that started to reach into the millions and created series such as Video Game House and Anime House, in which the most famous characters from both mediums attempt to live under one roof without taking a life away from each other.

A video about NBA star LeBron James' "chasedown blocks" went viral in 2020 when James was filmed watching the video and laughing out loud at the group's impression of him. The following year, Sports Illustrated called RDCWorld1 "the NBA's favorite content creators."

Despite the size of the convention and its reach, Newton says the group still likes to keep it as personal as possible with their fans.

"I think the main thing that makes us stand out is it's way more interactive and personal," Newton says. "Instead of just having random guests come out and take a bunch of pictures with people, we talk with people directly and try and inspire people. It being founded by a minority, it's way more of a unique thing and gives it more longevity.

"We don't know how big it will actually be," Newton adds. "We just keep creating caps because we're too scared but we let it go little by little."