Up 10.4% Year-on-Year
The Arts Management Support Center announced on May 21, 2025, that ticket sales in the performing arts market for the first quarter of this year reached an all-time high.
The Arts Management Support Center published the "2025 First Quarter Performing Arts Market Ticket Sales Analysis Report" on this day, analyzing reservation data from the Korea Performing Arts Box Office Information System (KOPIS) for January to March of this year. According to the report, the performing arts market in the first quarter recorded 4.72 million tickets sold and a total sales amount of 324.9 billion won. Compared to the same period last year, the number of tickets sold increased by 2.7%, and total sales rose by 10.4%.
The average ticket price per admission was approximately 69,000 won, about 5,000 won higher than last year.
Of the 324.9 billion won in ticket sales for the first quarter, the popular arts sector accounted for 156.9 billion won, representing 48.3% of the total. Ticket sales for non-popular arts genres (theater, musical, classical, gugak, dance, and mixed genres) amounted to 168 billion won, making up 51.7% of the total.
Within the non-popular arts genres, ticket sales were highest for musicals (134 billion won), followed by theater (17.9 billion won), classical (11.8 billion won), dance (3 billion won), gugak (900 million won), and mixed genres (500 million won). Musicals accounted for approximately 80% of ticket sales within non-popular arts genres, maintaining an overwhelming share.
The Arts Management Support Center stated that ticket sales for theater and musicals in the first quarter of this year reached record highs. The center also noted significant growth in the gugak and dance markets. The number of gugak ticket reservations increased by 14% year-on-year, while sales rose by 32.2%. For dance, the number of ticket reservations surged by 33.8%, and sales soared by 93.7%. In contrast, the classical sector saw ticket sales in the first quarter decrease by 30.6% compared to the same period last year, indicating a somewhat sluggish trend.
The concentration of performances in the Seoul metropolitan area remained pronounced. In the first quarter of this year, performances in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon accounted for 67.5% of total performances by number of events, 79.9% by number of showings, 82% by number of tickets reserved, and 85.8% by ticket sales amount.
Outside the metropolitan area, Busan (11.88951 billion won) and Daegu (11.62696 billion won) were identified as the most active regions for performances. In addition, the performance market in Sejong showed remarkable growth. Ticket sales for performances in Sejong City surged by 276% year-on-year to reach 1.37681 billion won. The number of performances in Sejong increased by 115.4%, and the number of ticket reservations rose by 47.2% compared to the previous year.
The "2025 First Quarter Performing Arts Market Ticket Sales Analysis Report" can be downloaded from the Arts Management Support Center website and the Korea Performing Arts Box Office Information System.
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