San Diego Comic-Con 2026 Returning Registration Recap: Mostly Treats, Few Tricks

Halloween may still be two weeks away, but San Diego Comic-Con attendees got an early taste of tricks and treats this morning with the Returning Registration badge sale for 2027. The first of two badge sales for next year’s convention was open exclusively to eligible returning general attendees today, meaning those who attended SDCC 2026 with a paid general attendee badge. For thousands of hopeful fans, it was their first chance to secure a ticket back to San Diego next summer, assuming the dreaded waiting room was feeling generous. But was today’s sale a treat, or did some familiar registration nightmares come back to haunt us? The Waiting Room The waiting room opened right on time at 7:30am PT. For many, it behaved as expected, showing the clock ticking down to 9am PT. Last year, you may recall that for many attendees, the background didn’t load, displaying only a white page with certain elements visible, since it was white text on a white background. This time, we saw exactly zero — yes, zero! — issues with the waiting room, which was an excellent start to the badge registration event. As in the past, anyone could join the waiting room, as you aren’t prompted to login until you ...