Befitting Webtoon's Home: World Webtoon Awards to Be Chosen by Global Reader Vote
Seoul Economic Daily
Last updated: June 15, 2026
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is accepting nominations for the 2026 World Webtoon Awards, focusing on reader recommendations to honor the best webtoons. This year introduces prize money and an Overseas Work Award, aiming to elevate the event's international prestige and support the webtoon industry's role as a K-content IP source.
- The 2026 World Webtoon Awards, co-hosted by the Korea Creative Content Agency, are open for nominations from June 15 to July 24, with submissions solely based on reader recommendations to reflect global fan sentiment.
- Eligible works must have been serialized between January 1, 2025, and May 31, 2026, on any domestic or international platform.
- Participants worldwide can nominate up to three works via the official website, which supports five languages: Korean, English, Japanese, French, and Spanish.
- The selection process involves a preliminary round where experts review the top 100 reader-recommended works, with the top 20 advancing.
- A final round combines new reader votes and judges' evaluations to select 10 main award winners, including a grand prize recipient.
- New this year are prize money for main award winners (10 million won each), with additional amounts for the grand prize and judges' award, and a newly established Overseas Work Award.
- The awards ceremony will take place at COEX in Seoul on December 2, coinciding with the opening of the World Webtoon Festival.
- The awards, launched in 2024, aim to boost the webtoon industry's standing, with past grand prize winners including "Solo Leveling" and "The Antique Shop of the Future."
- The Ministry emphasizes supporting fair judging to enhance the awards' value and lead the global market for webtoons as crucial K-content IP.
