2025 Merch By The Numbers
The 2025 touring season brought some great news for artists and managers alike!
Despite the shaky economy, more fans are coming out to shows and spending more on merch than ever.
The data from tour merch inventory & POS provider AtVenu shows that concert attendance is up, more than one in five fans are buying merch, and their average spend is over $10—a nice bump from last year.
Whether you're playing smaller rooms or massive arenas, fans are ready to spend, especially when you make it easy for them (like offering mobile ordering) and have a killer selection of high-quality items.
Here are some key takeaways:
Concert attendance increased.
Despite an unsettling economy, concert attendance was up year-over-year overall.
While attendance at music festivals dipped slightly and sporting-event attendance remained unchanged, more fans are going to live shows. (To state the obvious: this is great news, since you need fans in seats to buy merch.)
More fans are buying merch.
More than 1 in 5 fans in attendance are buying merch. Holding strong at 21% from 2024), this is a slight increase vs. 20% from 2023.
In other words, an artist playing a 500-cap room should have an average of 105 fans buying merch, 205 fans in a packed 1,000-cap room, or about 2,000 fans buying merch out of a crowd of 10,000.
This data can be helpful when deciding how much merch to invest in before the start of a tour.
Merch sales per fan increased.
The average amount of merch revenue per fan is up 3% over 2024.
Again, despite economic uncertainty and rising prices, fans spent more on merch than 2024.
Average merch spend: $10.24 per attendee
On average, artists sold an average of $10.24/head, up from $9.90/head 2024. (Results can vary per show, and this is taken as an average across the entire year.)
Most genres saw an increase in sales per fan.
While Hip-Hop/R&B saw an increase of 8%, K-Pop saw the biggest increase of a whopping 62%. Rock, Hard Rock, and Metal saw increases of 3-15%. (Country saw a slight decrease of 2%).
No matter what genre you’re in, fans are buying more merch than ever before, and you need to be ready sell it to them.
Mobile Ordering led to increase in merch revenue.
In larger venues (5K+), mobile ordering led to an increase in the percentage of fans who bought merch as well as the merch revenue per show (a 23% increase).
Why? Making things easy matters. We’re all used to mobile pickup for fast food…why not merch? Giving fans a faster and easier way to order right from their phone and pick up at the merch table or ship to their home may increase sales for you as well.
One example: We can help you setup an online merch store, and we can also handle everything from storage to inventory to web-order fulfillment. Sure, having the web store is another source of revenue beyond at-venue sales, but why can’t it drive at-venue sales? We can design and print some simple signage (like one of our Rollups) with a QR code so fans at your show can order right from their phone and either pick up the merch at the merch booth that night or have it shipped directly to their home.
What else can drive a higher $/head average?
Looking to increase your average spend per fan? You can stack the deck in a few ways:
Greater variety in garments/items (tees, hats, hoodies, accessories) to give fans choices
Well-curated merch items that your audience will love that also deliver great margins
Offering greater variety in the designs and colorways themselves
Engaging, retail-quality merch display with clear signage
Plenty of inventory (don’t run out of their size!)
At the heart of this is developing a solid merch strategy. This is where a solid merch partner with decades of experience (...ahem…) can really help you save money and maximize profits.
Ready to turn these numbers into real cash for your next run?
Don't leave money on the merch table—let's talk about optimizing your merch strategy.
Our team of merch experts is ready to help you craft a smart selection and streamlined sales plan that your fans will love (and buy).