Broadway 2025–26 in review: a second record, and the plays carried it
The Pulse · Season in review · 2025–26
Broadway grossed $1.91B in 2025–26, a second straight record, +1.0% on the season before in one fewer week. Like for like, over 52 weeks, gross rose about 3.5% and attendance about 1.8% (BroadwayWorld). The average paid ticket reached $131.09. Underneath the total the mix moved: plays gained an audience that musicals lost.
A retrospective, published October 4, 2026, from the Broadway League's season statistics and the reporting cited below.
The season in numbers
Total gross
$1.91B
vs 2024–25 +1.0%
vs 2018–19 +4.5%
Attendance
14.6M
vs 2024–25 −0.6%
vs 2018–19 −1.3%
Avg. paid ticket
$131.09
vs 2024–25 +1.5%
Capacity
90.8%
from 91.2%
Playing weeks
1,703
52-week season
New productions
35
43 the season before
Broadway gross by season · $ billions
A second record, by 1%.
2015–16
1.37
2016–17
1.45
2017–18
1.70
2018–19
1.83
2019–20
1.36
2021–22
0.85
2022–23
1.58
2023–24
1.54
2024–25
1.89
2025–26
1.91
Red: the season reviewed here. Muted: the two seasons cut short by the pandemic (2019–20 stopped in March 2020; 2021–22 began in late summer 2021; there was no 2020–21 season). Source: the Broadway League.
Plays up, musicals down
01
Play attendance rose 15%.
Plays drew 3.32M admissions, up from 2.88M, at an average ticket of $139.55, above the $128.83 for musicals. Musicals still sold 77% of the tickets, but their attendance fell to 11.23M from 11.76M, in a season one week shorter (BroadwayWorld).
02
The biggest weeks.
Every Brilliant Thing, Daniel Radcliffe's solo play, topped the season's final week at $2.3M, ahead of Hamilton at $2.04M and The Lion King at $1.98M (BroadwayWorld). Among the season's new productions, the returning Mamma Mia! had the best week, $2.59M over the New Year holiday, and Chess $2.07M over Thanksgiving (BroadwayWorld).
03
Who rose and who cooled.
In the season's final week, against the same week a year earlier, Oh, Mary! grossed 29% more and MJ 28% more; Death Becomes Her grossed 44% less, and Wicked 38% less against a week still lifted by the first film (BroadwayWorld). The second film, Wicked: For Good, opened in November 2025 to $147.0M in North America and reached $540.1M worldwide, below the first film's $758.7M (The Numbers).
Few paybacks
The season opened 35 new productions, the fewest in a full season since 2017–18, and almost 40% of its shows opened in April, ahead of the Tony Awards' eligibility cut-off (BroadwayWorld). By May 6, at least three of its productions had announced recoupment, among them Every Brilliant Thing, which paid back its $5.75M capitalization in just over two months (BroadwayWorld; Playbill). A thin, back-loaded season is a season of short runs: a show that opens in April has a few weeks to sell before summer decides it.
The Tonys: the winners and the splits
01
Schmigadoon! won the room.
Cinco Paul's musical won Best Musical, score and book, over The Lost Boys †, Titanique and Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) †. The Lost Boys, tied with Schmigadoon! for the most nominations at 12, took both featured musical awards, for Ali Louis Bourzgui and Shoshana Bean.
02
Ragtime and Death of a Salesman.
Ragtime won Best Revival of a Musical and both leading musical awards, for Joshua Henry and Caissie Levy. Death of a Salesman won Best Revival of a Play, Joe Mantello's direction and Laurie Metcalf's featured performance.
03
A split in the revivals, and the plays.
Cats: The Jellicle Ball won Best Direction of a Musical, for Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, but lost the revival prize to Ragtime. Liberation won Best Play; John Lithgow (Giant) and Lesley Manville (Oedipus) won the leading play awards.
Around the world
The Lion King passed $11.5B in worldwide grosses in November 2025, the highest for any stage musical; about 81% of it, four dollars in five, was earned away from Broadway (Guinness World Records). The two Wicked films together grossed about $1.3B worldwide (The Numbers), and Broadway's own Wicked shows what that does and doesn't do for a stage show: a record week in December 2024, and by May 2026 a week 38% below the same week a year earlier.
What it sets up
Two record seasons in a row, the second carried by plays, with fewer new productions and few paybacks. The question for anyone with money in a show is the one the season left open: whether musicals, which still take about three dollars in four, can grow their audience again, or whether the market's growth now belongs to the limited-run play. The Pulse tracks it every Tuesday.
Notes
† OFFSCRIPT is a producer, co-producer or investor in The Lost Boys and Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) (marked †). Observations on other productions come from published grosses and reporting, not from their books.
Sources: the Broadway League (season statistics 2015–16 to 2025–26); BroadwayWorld ("Broadway Set Another Box Office Record in 2025-2026", May 28, 2026; "Breaking Down the 2025/26 Broadway Season", May 2, 2026); Broadway.com and New York Theater (2026 Tony Award winners and nominations); Playbill (Every Brilliant Thing recoupment, May 6, 2026); The Numbers (the Wicked films); Guinness World Records (The Lion King).
Season figures are the Broadway League's, for the League's season (late May to late May); percentage changes are computed from the League's unrounded figures. Educational only; not an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security.
Revised October 4, 2026: the recoupment count now runs to May 6 and includes Every Brilliant Thing; it had said two, as of May 2.
The Pulse is OFFSCRIPT's weekly read on the Broadway grosses, every Tuesday, alongside Investing Unpacked. How we read the numbers: our methodology.