Live Events
China Live Music Market in Numbers
By
Percy Holtzman, Founder
09.25.26
/
6 min.
Every Figure Dated and Sourced, Updated Every Quarter
Anyone planning a China tour, a platform campaign or a brand partnership ends up looking for the same handful of numbers, and they are scattered across Chinese industry reports, quarterly filings and annual surveys. We keep them in one place and update them every quarter. Everything here is sourced and dated. Where a figure is a first half or full year number, it says so.
Last updated 25 September 2026.
The live market, first half of 2026
The China Association of Performing Arts publishes the industry's official market data. Its first half 2026 report came out on 24 July 2026.
Measure | First half 2026 | Change on a year earlier |
|---|---|---|
Commercial performances, excluding entertainment venues | 324,300 shows | up 1.96 percent |
Box office revenue | RMB 30.408 billion | up 9.41 percent |
Audience | 98.81 million admissions | up 5.28 percent |
Inside that, the part most foreign artists care about is the large room:
Measure, shows of 5,000 capacity and above | First half 2026 | Change on a year earlier |
|---|---|---|
Number of concerts and festivals | 1,300 | up 13.06 percent |
Box office revenue | RMB 17.111 billion | up 17.70 percent |
Audience | 23.28 million admissions | up 20.37 percent |
Read those two tables together and the shape of the market is clear. The overall number of shows barely moved, up under two percent. The big shows grew at thirteen percent and their box office at nearly eighteen. More than half of all live box office in China now comes from concerts and festivals of 5,000 people and up, from about four tenths of one percent of the events.
Source: China Association of Performing Arts, 2026 first half national performance market brief, released 24 July 2026.
The live market, full year 2025
CAPA published its 2025 national performance market brief on 13 January 2026, and gave the total market revenue figure separately on 21 April 2026.
Measure | Full year 2025 | Change on 2024 |
|---|---|---|
Total performance market revenue | RMB 83.722 billion | up 5.19 percent |
Box office revenue | RMB 61.655 billion | up 6.39 percent |
Commercial performances, excluding entertainment venues | 640,400 shows | up 6.58 percent on a comparable basis |
Audience | 194 million admissions | up 4.22 percent |
And the large room again:
Measure, shows of 5,000 capacity and above | Full year 2025 | Change on 2024 |
|---|---|---|
Number of concerts and festivals | 3,000 | up 12.70 percent |
Box office revenue | RMB 32.448 billion | up 9.49 percent |
Audience | 43.39 million admissions | up 18.81 percent |
CAPA also put a number on what those big shows pull along with them. Large scale performances of 5,000 capacity and above drove more than RMB 220 billion of spending beyond the ticket, on transport, hotels, food, travel and shopping, an average multiplier of 1 to 6.85 against box office. That figure is the reason city governments compete to host tours, and it is worth quoting in any conversation with a Chinese promoter or a city partner.
Two other 2025 numbers worth having to hand. Musical theatre ran 19,700 shows, up 15.04 percent, on box office of RMB 1.807 billion. Large and medium tourism performance projects, the resident shows attached to destinations, ran 198,700 shows on box office of RMB 17.442 billion.
Sources: China Association of Performing Arts, 2025 national performance market brief, released 13 January 2026, for box office, show counts, audience and the large scale breakdown. CAPA total market revenue figure announced by association president Liu Kezhi at the 2026 China (Hohhot) Performance Trade Fair, 21 April 2026, reported by Xinhua.
Recorded music
The IFPI Global Music Report 2026, published 18 March 2026, covers calendar 2025.
Measure | 2025 | Change on 2024 |
|---|---|---|
Global recorded music revenue | US$31.7 billion | up 6.4 percent |
Streaming share of global revenue | US$22 billion, 69.6 percent | |
Paid subscription share of global revenue | 52.4 percent | up 8.8 percent |
Paid subscription accounts worldwide | 837 million |
China's position in that report:
Measure | 2025 |
|---|---|
Rank among recorded music markets | Fourth, having passed Germany |
Revenue growth | up 20.1 percent |
Standing among the top 20 markets | Fastest growing |
China's recent run, per IFPI: up 28.4 percent in 2022, 25.9 percent in 2023, 9.6 percent in 2024, 20.1 percent in 2025. Four straight years of growth, three of them in double digits.
Source: IFPI Global Music Report 2026, published 18 March 2026.
The two platforms that matter for streaming revenue
Tencent Music Entertainment, which runs QQ Music, Kugou and Kuwo, reported its second quarter on 11 August 2026.
Measure | Q2 2026 | Change on a year earlier |
|---|---|---|
Total revenue | RMB 8.93 billion, about US$1.32 billion | up 5.8 percent |
Music services revenue | RMB 7.61 billion | up 11.0 percent |
Subscription revenue | RMB 4.79 billion | up 8.1 percent |
Paying subscribers | 124.4 million | up 6.3 percent |
Monthly active users | 551 million | down 3 percent |
Tencent Music closed its US$2.4 billion acquisition of the audio platform Ximalaya on 18 May 2026, which is part of why total revenue and music services revenue moved at different rates.
Source: Tencent Music Entertainment Group second quarter 2026 results, 11 August 2026.
NetEase Cloud Music reported its first half on 20 August 2026.
Measure | First half 2026 | Change on a year earlier |
|---|---|---|
Net revenue | RMB 4.0 billion, about US$583.4 million | up 3.4 percent |
Online music services revenue | RMB 3.1 billion | up 3.4 percent |
Profit attributable to shareholders | RMB 1.885 billion | up 132.83 percent |
Source: NetEase Cloud Music Inc. first half 2026 financial results, 20 August 2026.
What these numbers mean if you are planning a tour
Three things worth taking from the tables above.
The growth is in the big rooms. Total show count is close to flat while 5,000 plus capacity concerts and festivals grew at thirteen percent in the first half of 2026 and their box office at almost eighteen. If you are building a China routing, the arena and festival end of the market is where the money and the attention have moved.
The audience is growing faster than the box office in the large room. Audience for 5,000 plus shows rose 20.37 percent in the first half of 2026 against box office growth of 17.70 percent, which means average ticket prices eased slightly while more people came. That is a market widening, not just a market getting more expensive.
Recorded music and live are moving together. China's recorded music revenue grew 20.1 percent in 2025 while paying subscribers at the two largest platforms kept climbing. For a foreign artist that matters because the streaming platforms are also increasingly the promoters and the discovery layer. A release strategy and a touring strategy in China are one conversation, not two.
Related reading on this site: What It Actually Takes to Play a Show in China, Music Venues in China, Why Cities Are Competing to Host Your Show, China Is Now the World's Fourth Largest Music Market, Where Your Music Lives in China, and our services.
How this page is maintained
We update this page every quarter, when CAPA publishes and when the platforms report. Every figure carries the date of the report it came from, not the date we read it. If a number here is out of date, it is because the source has not published yet.
If you are working on a China tour, a platform campaign or a brand partnership and want these numbers applied to your own situation rather than read off a table, that is the conversation we have every week. Get in touch and we will walk you through what it looks like for your act.
