South Korea's top 50 performances by July 2026 ticket bookings

Key findings

• The best-selling title of July 2026 was Lim Young-woong's stadium concert IM HERO, THE STADIUM 2 at Goyang Stadium — a show that does not open until September. This ranking counts the day a ticket was paid for, not the day the curtain goes up.
• 31 of the 50 (62%) open after July ends. Only 19 were actually on stage during the month.
• Popular music took 29 of the 50 places (58%), ahead of musicals (16, 32%), plays (4, 8%) and classical (1, 2%).
• 46 of the 50 (92%) were in the capital region — Seoul, Gyeonggi and Incheon — a tighter concentration than Q1 2026's 90%. Everything outside it was three Busan dates and one in Daejeon.
• PSY's SUMMERSWAG placed Busan, Suwon and Daejeon in the list at once, the only multi-city tour to manage it, and six Daehangno productions seating 300–1,000 made the national top 50.

Contents

1. Key findings
2. What this data covers
3. At a glance
4. The full TOP 50 table
5. Booked in July, staged in August
6. The advance-sales calendar
7. The genre split
8. PSY SUMMERSWAG in three cities at once
9. Venue concentration
10. Regional concentration
11. The small houses of Daehangno
12. What it adds up to
13. Practical booking tips
14. Frequently asked questions

What this data covers

This column reads the 50 highest-selling performances of July 2026 (1–31 July) in South Korea, using the booking dashboard published by KOPIS, the national performing-arts information system, by rank, timing, genre, region and venue. The query was all genres, all regions, ranked by total booking value, retrieved on 31 August 2026.

The first thing to say is that this ranking is keyed to when a ticket was paid for, not when the performance happens. Shows staged during July sit alongside August, September, October and even December dates whose tickets happened to go on sale in July. That makes it a different animal from a conventional box office, which counts after the fact — so the two figures below, the opening-month split and the advance-sales calendar, are the fastest way to read this table without misreading it.

Every run, venue and house size below was checked back against the record KOPIS holds. Each title in the table links to its performance page on this site, and each venue to that venue's page.

At a glance

Four numbers that carry the month: popular music at 58% of the list, 92% of it in the capital region, and 62% of it opening only after July was over.

50

productions analysed

58%

popular music

92%

in the capital region

62%

opening in August or later

The full TOP 50 table

The 50 highest booking values recorded during July. House size is the capacity of the venue, not tickets sold. Tap a title for the performance page, or a venue for the venue page.

※ Source: KOPIS booking dashboard, 1–31 July 2026, retrieved 31 August 2026.

Booked in July, staged in August

Regroup the 50 by the month each production actually opens and the shape of this ranking becomes obvious. The largest group is not July's own shows (10, 20%) but the 19 that open in August (38%). Add September's 8 and the 4 from October onward and 31 of the 50 (62%) had not opened when the month ended.

Opening in August19

Opening in July10

Already running (opened Apr–Jun)9

Opening in September8

Opening in October or later4

When the July TOP 50 actually opens

• Opening in August: 19
• Opening in July: 10
• Already running (opened Apr–Jun): 9
• Opening in September: 8
• Opening in October or later: 4

The furthest-out booking is YUURI LIVE at Inspire Arena on 5–6 December, already 13th by booking value five months ahead of the date. At the other end, the nine filed as "already running" are long runs — Beethoven, Those Days, Billy Elliot, Yumi's Cells — which sell a little every day rather than everything in a weekend.

The month's biggest advance sale

• 1st overall · popular music · booked during July 2026
• Performed 4–6 September 2026 · Goyang Stadium · 10,000+ seats
• The largest single month of ticket payments in July, for a concert two months away

The advance-sales calendar

The same point, on a calendar. Each bar below is the real run of one of July's top 20 sellers; the axis covers 1 July to 31 December.

7월8월9월10월11월12월

1. Lim Young-woong Concert: IM HERO, THE STADIUM 2

2. Dracula (Seoul)

3. NCT 127 5TH TOUR, NEO CITY: THE REDLINE (Seoul)

4. Busan International Rock Festival

5. Beethoven (Seoul)

6. BIGBANG WORLD TOUR (Goyang)

7. Young K Solo Tour: YOUNGEST (Incheon)

8. Elisabeth

9. ENHYPEN WORLD TOUR: BLOOD SAGA (Busan)

10. Sung Si-kyung with friends

11. Those Days (Seoul)

12. 2PM Concert: THE RETURN (Incheon)

13. YUURI LIVE (Seoul)

14. DINO X Pi Chul-in: 吉BOARD SHOW

15. Frozen (Seoul)

16. Billy Elliot

17. Yumi's Cells (Seoul)

18. N.Flying LIVE, &CON5: into REM (Seoul)

19. The Merchant of Venice

20. Western Story (Daehangno)

• Popular music
• Musical
• Play

When the July TOP 20 is actually staged

• 1. Lim Young-woong Concert: IM HERO, THE STADIUM 2: 2026.09.04 – 2026.09.06 · Goyang Stadium, Main Stadium
• 2. Dracula (Seoul): 2026.07.10 – 2026.10.18 · LG Arts Center Seoul, LG SIGNATURE Hall
• 3. NCT 127 5TH TOUR, NEO CITY: THE REDLINE (Seoul): 2026.09.18 – 2026.09.20 · KSPO DOME, Olympic Park
• 4. Busan International Rock Festival: 2026.10.02 – 2026.10.04 · Samnak Ecological Park
• 5. Beethoven (Seoul): 2026.06.09 – 2026.08.11 · Sejong Center, Grand Theater
• 6. BIGBANG WORLD TOUR (Goyang): 2026.08.21 – 2026.08.23 · Goyang Stadium, Main Stadium
• 7. Young K Solo Tour: YOUNGEST (Incheon): 2026.08.14 – 2026.08.16 · Inspire Arena
• 8. Elisabeth: 2026.08.16 – 2026.11.15 · Blue Square, Woori Bank Hall
• 9. ENHYPEN WORLD TOUR: BLOOD SAGA (Busan): 2026.08.08 – 2026.08.09 · Busan Sajik Arena
• 10. Sung Si-kyung with friends: 2026.09.05 – 2026.09.06 · Olympic Park, 88 Lawn
• 11. Those Days (Seoul): 2026.06.09 – 2026.08.23 · D-Cube Link Art Center, D-Cube Theater
• 12. 2PM Concert: THE RETURN (Incheon): 2026.08.08 – 2026.08.09 · Inspire Arena
• 13. YUURI LIVE (Seoul): 2026.12.05 – 2026.12.06 · Inspire Arena
• 14. DINO X Pi Chul-in: 吉BOARD SHOW: 2026.08.21 – 2026.08.23 · Jamsil Arena
• 15. Frozen (Seoul): 2026.08.13 – 2027.03.01 · Charlotte Theater
• 16. Billy Elliot: 2026.04.12 – 2026.07.26 · Blue Square, Woori Bank Hall
• 17. Yumi's Cells (Seoul): 2026.06.30 – 2026.08.23 · Seoul Arts Center, CJ Towol Theater
• 18. N.Flying LIVE, &CON5: into REM (Seoul): 2026.07.31 – 2026.08.02 · Jamsil Arena
• 19. The Merchant of Venice: 2026.07.08 – 2026.08.09 · National Theater of Korea, Haeoreum Grand Theater
• 20. Western Story (Daehangno): 2026.07.01 – 2026.09.27 · Uniplex Hall 1

A bar touching the left edge is a long run that opened before July; the short bars far to the right are big concerts whose tickets merely went on sale. Two different kinds of business — the long bar and the short one — are competing in the same table, and that is the structure of this data.

The genre split

By genre: popular music 29 (58%), musicals 16 (32%), plays 4 (8%), classical 1 (2%).

50

• Popular music29 · 58%
• Musical16 · 32%
• Play4 · 8%
• Classical1 · 2%

Of 100 seats, popular music takes 58, musicals 32, plays 8 and classical 2.

• Popular music58seats
• Musical32seats
• Play8seats
• Classical2seats

The 29 popular-music entries span a wide range: idol tours and fan concerts (NCT 127, ENHYPEN, 2PM, aespa, Red Velvet, CORTIS, izna), ballad and trot concerts (Lim Young-woong, Sung Si-kyung, John Park, Kang Moon-kyung), large festivals (Busan International Rock Festival, Asia Top Artist Festival, ONE UNIVERSE FESTIVAL, SUMMERSWAG) and a game-IP concert, Wuthering Waves World Tour.

The 16 musicals are led by large licensed productions — Dracula, Elisabeth, Frozen, Hell's Kitchen, Dear Evan Hansen — with five small-house Daehangno originals alongside them. Only four plays made the list, though The Merchant of Venice reached 19th, and in classical the Vienna Philharmonic charted 42nd on July bookings alone for a concert on 25 October.

PSY SUMMERSWAG in three cities at once

PSY's summer concert brand returned in 2026 as the national tour SUMMERSWAG, and all three of its dates made the TOP 50 — the only tour this month to place three separate cities.

• Busan 26th · Busan Asiad Main Stadium · 15–16 Aug · 10,000+ seats
• Suwon 28th · Suwon World Cup Stadium, Auxiliary Ground · 1–2 Aug · 300–499 seats
• Daejeon 31st · Mokwon University Main Field · 22–23 Aug · not listed

Look at the house sizes. Busan registers as 10,000+, Suwon as 300–499, and Daejeon has no seat count at all. KOPIS records the seats a venue has formally registered, so an auxiliary ground or a university field — where the stage and the seating are built for the night — reads far smaller than the crowd it actually holds. House size is not a proxy for scale here.

Venue concentration

The 50 productions were spread across 39 venues. Four of them hosted three each and share first place, three hosted two, and the remaining 32 hosted one apiece. This was a month of distribution across mid-size and large rooms rather than concentration in any one of them.

Inspire Arena3

Jamsil Arena3

Korea University Hwajung Gymnasium3

Olympic Hall, Olympic Park3

Goyang Stadium2

Blue Square, Woori Bank Hall2

D-Cube Link Art Center, D-Cube Theater2

Venues that hosted more than one of the TOP 50

• Inspire Arena: 3
• Jamsil Arena: 3
• Korea University Hwajung Gymnasium: 3
• Olympic Hall, Olympic Park: 3
• Goyang Stadium: 2
• Blue Square, Woori Bank Hall: 2
• D-Cube Link Art Center, D-Cube Theater: 2

Inspire Arena, open since December 2023, placed Young K, 2PM and YUURI, confirming its hold on the western half of the capital region. A university gym, Korea University Hwajung Gymnasium, took three 5,000–10,000-seat K-pop and subculture shows (CORTIS, Red Velvet, Wuthering Waves), and Jamsil Arena and Olympic Hall managed three each as well.

One note on counting: KOPIS registers these as complexes and manages the halls inside them separately, which is why "KSPO DOME, Olympic Park" and "Olympic Hall, Olympic Park" count as two different venues above.

Regional concentration

By region: Seoul 37 (74%), Gyeonggi 5 (10%), Incheon 4 (8%), Busan 3 (6%), Daejeon 1 (2%) — 46 in the capital region, or 92%.

37

Seoul (74%)

5

Gyeonggi (10%)

4

Incheon (8%)

3

Busan (6%)

1

Daejeon (2%)

Against Q1 2026's 90%, that is two points tighter, not looser. The rooms seating 10,000 or more sit in Seoul (KSPO DOME, Gocheok Sky Dome, Jamsil Arena) and Incheon (Inspire Arena), and nothing about that changed. The four entries from outside the capital region — ENHYPEN in Busan, Busan International Rock Festival, and SUMMERSWAG in Busan and Daejeon — are all either a national tour extending outward or an outdoor festival.

The small houses of Daehangno

Six productions carry Daehangno in their title: Western Story (20th), Dead Poets Society (27th), The Brothers Karamazov (30th), Hymn of Death (35th), Paganini (37th) and The Origin of Species (39th). Almost all of them play houses of 300 to 1,000 seats — nothing like an arena.

What gets them into a national top 50 is run length. These are open-ended or seasonal runs lasting two to three months, so instead of a weekend's worth of revenue they accumulate a little every day, summed over a whole month. It is a business of frequency and performance count, not price per seat.

What it adds up to

Three things stand out. First, this ranking measures when tickets sold, not how a show performed. With 62% of the list opening after July and the number one playing in September, the pattern is clear: for a large act, revenue arrives in the month the tickets open. Second, popular music's 58% is what happens when idol tours, festivals and ballad concerts all put tickets on sale in the same summer window; the actual attendance peak lands in August. Third, a multi-city stadium tour and a 300-seat Daehangno house appear in the same table — one stadium night measured against sixty small-house performances.

August brings BIGBANG, SUMMERSWAG, N.Flying and Red Velvet to the stage for real. How they move on next month's dashboard — and how far Lim Young-woong's and NCT 127's September stadium dates keep selling — is the thing to watch. We followed it up in the August 2026 TOP 50.

Practical booking tips

Arena and stadium shows

Goyang Stadium, Inspire Arena, Jamsil Arena and Korea University Hwajung Gymnasium all seat 5,000 or more, and the nearest subway stations and car parks jam badly the moment a show ends. Routes and busy periods for each venue are on our venue pages and visiting tips.

Daehangno musicals and plays

As the section above shows, Daehangno houses hold 300–1,000 people, so performances with a popular cast sell out quickly after booking opens. If a particular actor's dates matter to you, watch for the on-sale announcement rather than the opening night.

Frequently asked questions

What was the best-selling performance of July 2026?

Lim Young-woong's concert IM HERO, THE STADIUM 2. The show itself runs 4–6 September at Goyang Stadium in Gyeonggi, but it took more ticket payments during July than anything else, which is what this ranking measures.

Is this a ranking of shows that were staged in July?

No. The KOPIS booking dashboard ranks by the total value of tickets paid for between 1 and 31 July 2026, regardless of performance dates. 31 of the 50 (62%) open after July ends — September and October dates, and one in December.

Which venue appears most often in the TOP 50?

Four share first place with three productions each: Inspire Arena, Jamsil Arena, Korea University Hwajung Gymnasium and Olympic Hall in Olympic Park. The 50 were spread across 39 venues in all, 32 of which hosted a single production.

How many times does PSY's SUMMERSWAG appear in the TOP 50?

Three: Busan (26th), Suwon (28th) and Daejeon (31st). It is the only tour in the July 2026 table to place three separate cities at once.

What is the genre breakdown of the July 2026 TOP 50?

Popular music 29 (58%), musicals 16 (32%), plays 4 (8%) and classical 1 (2%).

How are the TOP 50 distributed by region?

Seoul 37 (74%), Gyeonggi 5 (10%), Incheon 4 (8%), Busan 3 (6%) and Daejeon 1 (2%). Seoul, Gyeonggi and Incheon together account for 46 of the 50, or 92%.

What does the house size column mean?

It is the seating capacity registered for the venue, not the number of tickets sold. Outdoor festivals and stadiums with temporary staging often have no registered seating, which is why they read "Not listed" — and why SUMMERSWAG in Suwon shows as 300–499.

Where does this data come from?

The booking dashboard of KOPIS, South Korea's national performing-arts information system, run by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The query covered 1–31 July 2026 across all genres and regions, ranked by total booking value, retrieved on 31 August 2026.

Related pages

August 2026 ticket sales TOP 50 — the following month Q1 2026 ticket sales TOP 20 — the previous quarter Browse performances — search and filter every show in Korea Browse venues — capacity, facilities, access Visiting tips — guides to the large venues

Source: KOPIS booking dashboard, 1–31 July 2026, retrieved 31 August 2026.

How the ranking works: it counts the total value of tickets paid for within the search period, not performance dates, so a show staged months later can chart on advance sales alone. Runs, venues and house sizes were checked back against KOPIS's own records.

The figures in this column — the opening-month split, the advance-sales calendar, the genre donut and pictogram, the venue ranking and the regional map — were all derived and drawn by the PUBLICAi editorial team from public KOPIS data.