Concert Ticket Transactions Up 15% Last Year... Half of Reservations Made by Solo Attendees

Nol Universe Releases Analysis of Last Year's Concert Ticket Sales

Nol Universe announced on April 10, 2026, that the concert segment showed the most significant growth in last year's ticket market.

According to Nol Universe, the total transaction volume for performances and tickets sold through NOL and NOL Ticket last year increased by 7% compared to the previous year. By category, concerts saw the highest growth rate at 15%, followed by sports at 7% and musicals at 3%.

Nol Universe especially highlighted that last year's concert market stood out for its diversification of genres and powerful fandom-driven demand. Both global pop stars like Coldplay and Oasis, who performed in Korea, as well as domestic artists such as Kim Dong-ryul, Seventeen, and Lim Young-woong, enjoyed widespread popularity. Among these, the proportion of female ticket purchasers increased by 7 percentage points compared to the previous year.

The timing of ticket reservations has also moved earlier. The average reservation date across all categories shifted from 26 days before the event to 32 days before the event, 6 days earlier than before. For concerts in particular, reservations were made about 15 days earlier on average compared to the previous year.

In terms of reservation patterns, single-ticket bookings accounted for nearly 50% of all reservations. Categories with the highest proportion of solo attendees were concerts (59%), plays (57%), and musicals (55%), in that order. This is attributed to strong fandoms and the prevalence of so-called "revolving door viewing," referring to repeat attendance, which boosted the proportion of single-ticket reservations.

The share of concert ticket sales for weekdays (Monday through Thursday) rose by 11 percentage points to 27% compared to the previous year, indicating that a weekend-centric performance culture is expanding into weekdays. Additionally, the exhibition and event category showed an even split, with weekday and weekend attendance both accounting for 50%.

The spread of cultural content beyond the Seoul metropolitan area is also continuing. Looking at the growth rate in the number of products by region, North Chungcheong Province recorded the steepest increase with a surge of 37% compared to the previous year. This was followed by Jeju Special Self-Governing Province (26.4%) and South Chungcheong Province (26.0%).

Baek Saemi, Head of Entertainment Business Group at Nol Universe, stated, "As performance content diversifies and viewing styles change rapidly, cultural consumption is becoming ever more ingrained in daily life. We plan to continue leading the growth of the performance and leisure market by further enhancing our services to reflect customers’ diverse preferences, based on data-driven insights."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.