According to the performance ticket reservation site Interpark, the total ticket sales amount for performances in 2021 was 283.7 billion KRW. This represents a 117.7% increase compared to 2020, but it is only 53.8% of the 527.6 billion KRW recorded in 2019 before the pandemic. This indicates that the performance industry, which was severely impacted by COVID-19, is still facing difficulties. Looking at the recovery trends by genre compared to 2019, the year just before COVID-19, concerts showed the lowest recovery at 25.9% compared to 247.4 billion KRW in 2019. Plays recovered to 50.4%, dance and traditional arts to 52.6%, and musicals to 77.3%.
Examining the share of each genre in the total performance sales amount, the classical genre showed remarkable growth in 2021. Its share increased by 9 percentage points from 3% in 2020 to 12%, which is attributed not only to a younger audience base for traditional classical and opera but also to the significant activities of crossover vocalists such as La Poem and Forestella. Concerts, which struggled to attract large audiences, saw their share decrease by 7 percentage points to 23% compared to the previous year, while musicals maintained their share at 58%. Plays accounted for 5%, down 2 percentage points, and dance/traditional arts represented 2% of sales.
The total number of performances sold on Interpark in 2021 was 8,515, nearly doubling from 4,310 in the previous year. This increase in the number of performances corresponds with the more than twofold increase in sales amount. By genre, classical performances were the most numerous at 3,836, followed by plays at 1,454, musicals at 1,387, concerts at 1,232, and dance/traditional arts at 609.
Untact (contactless) performances, which became prominent with COVID-19, further matured through 2021. The number of online performances sold on Interpark in 2021 was 203, a 250% increase from 58 in the previous year. Among these, concerts accounted for the largest share with 158 performances, followed by musicals with 35, classical with 6, and plays with 4. The sales amount for these online performances was approximately 7.6 billion KRW, a 15% increase compared to the previous year.
Looking at the gender distribution of audiences who purchased online performance tickets on Interpark in 2021, women accounted for 74.2% and men 25.8%, showing a distribution very similar to that of overall performance audiences. Comparing the age distribution of online performance audiences to that of all performance audiences, the proportion of teenagers and people in their twenties was much higher among online audiences. While the overall audience for performances aged 10 to 29 accounted for 37.9%, online audiences included 9.6% teenagers and 46.7% people in their twenties, totaling 56.3%. Notably, female audiences in their twenties made up the largest share at 35.2%, which is analyzed to be due to concerts accounting for 80.4% of online performance sales, with idol singers’ performances and fan meetings comprising a significant portion.
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