South Korea's top 20 performances by ticket revenue, Q1 2026
The twenty highest-grossing performances of Q1 2026, from KOPIS box-office data. Popular music took 11 of the 20 (55%), a single room — KSPO DOME in Olympic Park — hosted 6, and 18 of the 20 (90%) were staged in the capital region. Every run, venue and seat count checked against KOPIS's own records.
PUBLICAi Editorial
Contents23
- Key findings
- What this data covers
- At a glance
- The full TOP 20 table
- The quarter on a calendar
- The genre split
- Lim Young-woong, three cities at once
- Venue concentration
- Regional concentration
- What it adds up to
- Practical booking tips
- 💡 Large arena shows
- 💡 Long-running musicals
- Frequently asked questions
- What was the best-selling performance of Q1 2026?
- Is this ranked by tickets sold or by revenue?
- Which venue appears most often in the TOP 20?
- How many times did Lim Young-woong chart in Q1 2026?
- What was the genre split of the Q1 2026 TOP 20?
- How many of the TOP 20 ran outside the quarter?
- What do the seat counts in the table mean?
- Where does this data come from?
- Related pages
Key findings
- The best-selling production of Q1 2026 was the play Spirited Away — Original Tour at the Seoul Arts Center, and popular music took 11 of the 20 places (55%), the largest share of any genre.
- Lim Young-woong's IM HERO TOUR charted in Seoul, Busan and Daejeon at once — the only artist this quarter to place three separate cities in the TOP 20.
- KSPO DOME in Olympic Park alone hosted 6 of the 20 (30%), a single room taking nearly a third of the list.
- 18 of the 20 (90%) were in the capital region (16 in Seoul, 2 in Incheon), and 7 had already opened before the quarter began — though only 2 of those ran past 31 March.
Contents
- Key findings
- What this data covers
- At a glance
- The full TOP 20 table
- The quarter on a calendar
- The genre split
- Lim Young-woong, three cities at once
- Venue concentration
- Regional concentration
- What it adds up to
- Practical booking tips
- Frequently asked questions
What this data covers
This column analyses the 20 highest-grossing performances of Q1 2026 (January–March) in South Korea, using box-office data published by KOPIS, the national performing-arts information system, and reads them by rank, timing, genre, region and venue. The ranking is by the total value of tickets actually paid for — not attendance, and not seat occupancy. That structurally favours productions with a high price per seat and long runs in large houses, which is worth saying before any of the figures below.
The list also mixes runs that cross the quarter boundary: Life of Pi (29 Nov 2025 – 2 Mar 2026), Death Note (14 Oct 2025 – 25 May 2026) and Sleep No More Seoul (24 Jul 2025 – 27 Sep 2026). For those, standard box-office practice counts only the revenue that fell inside the quarter, not the whole run. The calendar further down shows that overlap in one picture.
Every run, venue and seat count below was checked back against the record KOPIS holds for that production. Each title in the table links to its performance page on this site, and each venue to that venue's page, so schedules, booking links and house sizes are one click away.
At a glance
Four numbers that carry the quarter: popular music at 55% of the list, a largest house of 18,000 seats (BEXCO in Busan), and 90% of everything happening in the capital region.
- 20
- productions analysed
- 55%
- popular music
- 18,000
- largest house · BEXCO
- 90%
- in the capital region
The full TOP 20 table
Rank alongside each production's run, venue, region and house size. Seat counts are the capacity of the hall the show played, not tickets sold. Tap a title for the performance page, or a venue for the venue page.
Ranked by ticket revenue; for a run crossing the quarter boundary, only revenue inside the quarter counts. Daejeon Convention Center (DCC), Exhibition Hall 2 and The McKittrick Hotel Seoul have no seat count registered with KOPIS.
The quarter on a calendar
Laid out on a time axis rather than as a ranking, the same twenty look like two different markets. Idol and trot concerts appear as short marks of one to three days; licensed musicals cross the whole quarter as long bars. A bar reaching the edge of the axis means the run continued outside Q1.
- Popular music
- Musical
- Play
The Q1 2026 TOP 20 on a calendar
- Spirited Away — Original Tour (Seoul): 7 Jan 2026 – 22 Mar 2026 · Seoul Arts Center, Opera Theater
- Kinky Boots: 17 Dec 2025 – 29 Mar 2026 · Charlotte Theater
- Beetlejuice (Seoul): 16 Dec 2025 – 22 Mar 2026 · LG Arts Center Seoul, LG SIGNATURE Hall
- NCT DREAM TOUR FINALE: THE DREAM SHOW 4: 20 Mar 2026 – 29 Mar 2026 · KSPO DOME, Olympic Park
- Death Note (Seoul): 14 Oct 2025 – 25 May 2026 · D-Cube Link Art Center, D-Cube Theater
- Moulin Rouge!: 27 Nov 2025 – 22 Feb 2026 · Blue Square, Woori Bank Hall
- Lim Young-woong, IM HERO TOUR (Seoul): 16 Jan 2026 – 18 Jan 2026 · Gocheok Sky Dome
- Life of Pi: 29 Nov 2025 – 2 Mar 2026 · GS Arts Center
- Lim Young-woong, IM HERO TOUR (Busan): 6 Feb 2026 – 8 Feb 2026 · BEXCO Exhibition Hall 1
- The Man in Hanbok (Seoul): 2 Dec 2025 – 8 Mar 2026 · Chungmu Art Center, Grand Theater
- RIIZE CONCERT TOUR FINALE: RIIZING LOUD (Seoul): 6 Mar 2026 – 8 Mar 2026 · KSPO DOME, Olympic Park
- TXT MOA CON: 27 Feb 2026 – 1 Mar 2026 · KSPO DOME, Olympic Park
- BAEKHYUN WORLD TOUR: Reverie, dot: 2 Jan 2026 – 4 Jan 2026 · KSPO DOME, Olympic Park
- ZEROBASEONE WORLD TOUR: HERE & NOW (Seoul encore): 13 Mar 2026 – 15 Mar 2026 · KSPO DOME, Olympic Park
- Cho Yong-pil & The Great Birth National Tour (Seoul): 9 Jan 2026 – 11 Jan 2026 · KSPO DOME, Olympic Park
- Lim Young-woong, IM HERO TOUR (Daejeon): 2 Jan 2026 – 4 Jan 2026 · Daejeon Convention Center (DCC), Exhibition Hall 2
- Anna Karenina: 20 Feb 2026 – 29 Mar 2026 · Sejong Center, Sejong Grand Theater
- Sleep No More Seoul: 24 Jul 2025 – 27 Sep 2026 · The McKittrick Hotel Seoul
- CxM DOUBLE UP LIVE PARTY (Incheon): 23 Jan 2026 – 25 Jan 2026 · Inspire Arena
- IVE THE 4TH FAN CONCERT: DIVE into IVE (Incheon): 21 Mar 2026 – 22 Mar 2026 · Inspire Arena
What stands out is that 7 of the 20 had already opened before the quarter began — Kinky Boots, Beetlejuice, Death Note, Moulin Rouge!, Life of Pi, The Man in Hanbok and Sleep No More Seoul. Only 2 of those continued past 31 March: Death Note (to 25 May 2026) and Sleep No More Seoul (to 27 Sep 2026). Kinky Boots and Beetlejuice both closed in late March, just inside the quarter. Sleep No More Seoul is the longest run on the list by a wide margin: it opened in July 2025 and is still playing as this column goes out. The concerts work the opposite way, concentrating their entire revenue into two or three nights.
The genre split
By genre the twenty divide into popular music 11 (55%), musicals 7 (35%) and plays 2 (10%). Popular music dominates because several large idol tours landed in the same quarter.
- Popular music11 · 55%
- Musical7 · 35%
- Play2 · 10%
55 of 100 seats to popular music; 35 of 100 seats to musical; 10 of 100 seats to play
- Popular music55seats
- Musical35seats
- Play10seats
Inside those 11, 7 were idol concerts (NCT DREAM, RIIZE, TXT, BAEKHYUN, ZEROBASEONE, CxM and IVE), 3 were Lim Young-woong's trot dates in Seoul, Busan and Daejeon, and one was Cho Yong-pil. Among the musicals, 5 were licensed productions — Kinky Boots, Beetlejuice, Death Note, Moulin Rouge! and Anna Karenina — alongside one original work, The Man in Hanbok, and one non-verbal show, Sleep No More Seoul. Only 2 plays made the list, but one of them took first place overall: few in number, top of the table in revenue.
Lim Young-woong, three cities at once
Lim Young-woong's national tour 'IM HERO TOUR' placed all three of its cities inside the top twenty:
- Seoul · Gocheok Sky Dome · #7 · 16,744 seats · 16–18 Jan 2026
- Busan · BEXCO Exhibition Hall 1 · #9 · 18,000 seats · 6–8 Feb 2026
- Daejeon · Daejeon Convention Center (DCC), Exhibition Hall 2 · #16 · seats not reported · 2–4 Jan 2026
No other tour charted in three separate cities this quarter. More striking is that the Busan date played the largest room in the entire TOP 20 — BEXCO Exhibition Hall 1 seats 18,000, above Gocheok Sky Dome's 16,744. Demand at that scale clearly exists outside the capital region; what is scarce is somewhere to put it.
Venue concentration
Counted by venue, KSPO DOME in Olympic Park hosted 6 of the twenty — NCT DREAM, RIIZE, TXT, BAEKHYUN, ZEROBASEONE and Cho Yong-pil all played there. Inspire Arena in Incheon came second with 2, and the remaining 12 venues hosted one each.
Venues by number of TOP 20 productions hosted
- KSPO DOME, Olympic Park: 6
- Inspire Arena: 2
- Gocheok Sky Dome: 1
- Daejeon Convention Center (DCC), Exhibition Hall 2: 1
- D-Cube Link Art Center, D-Cube Theater: 1
- The McKittrick Hotel Seoul: 1
- BEXCO Exhibition Hall 1: 1
- Blue Square, Woori Bank Hall: 1
- Charlotte Theater: 1
- Sejong Center, Sejong Grand Theater: 1
- Seoul Arts Center, Opera Theater: 1
- Chungmu Art Center, Grand Theater: 1
- GS Arts Center: 1
- LG Arts Center Seoul, LG SIGNATURE Hall: 1
KSPO DOME — the 1986 Olympic gymnastics hall, remodelled — has become the default room for a large K-pop tour: 15,000 seats, a reconfigurable floor, and central Seoul access. Inspire Arena, opened in December 2023, put 2 productions into the TOP 20 barely two years in, establishing itself as the new large-scale venue for the western capital region.
Worth noting for anyone reading the table: KOPIS registers both of these as complexes — Olympic Park and Inspire Entertainment Resort — with KSPO DOME and the Arena as individual halls inside them. That is why the seat counts above are the hall's capacity rather than the whole site's.
Regional concentration
By region: Seoul 16, Incheon 2, Busan 1, Daejeon 1 — so 18 of the 20 (90%) were staged in the capital region. The only two outside it were both Lim Young-woong dates.
- 16
- Seoul (80%)
- 2
- Incheon (10%)
- 1
- Busan (5%)
- 1
- Daejeon (5%)
This follows directly from infrastructure. Rooms seating 10,000 or more cluster in Seoul (KSPO DOME, Gocheok Sky Dome) and Incheon (Inspire Arena), with little comparable elsewhere, so a large tour is routed to the capital region almost by default. That only an artist with Lim Young-woong's following could reach the TOP 20 on non-capital dates alone shows how high that barrier sits.
What it adds up to
Three currents run through the quarter. First, idol concerts and licensed musicals are the two poles of ticket power — and as the calendar shows, the large-house musicals (Kinky Boots, Beetlejuice, Moulin Rouge!, Death Note) built their revenue steadily over months rather than in a weekend. Second, an artist with a deep enough following sells regardless of city, as Lim Young-woong demonstrates; whether other acts extend their tours outside the capital region is the number to watch for regional growth. Third, the shortage of arena-scale venues behind both KSPO DOME's six dates and Inspire Arena's rapid rise remains unresolved, and new openings are what would change the picture.
For Q2 (April–June), the questions are which spring musicals open, and whether the idol tours that finished at KSPO DOME this quarter take follow-up dates to other regions.
Practical booking tips
💡 Large arena shows
Rooms of around 15,000 seats — KSPO DOME, Gocheok Sky Dome, Inspire Arena — jam the nearest subway station and every car park for a while after the curtain. Check the best transit route and the crowding window on the venue pages and in our visiting tips before you go.
💡 Long-running musicals
As the calendar shows, a long run like Death Note or Sleep No More Seoul sells its best dates out first as the season goes on. If you want a particular date or a particular cast, book early rather than late.
Frequently asked questions
What was the best-selling performance of Q1 2026?
The play Spirited Away — Original Tour, at the Opera Theater of the Seoul Arts Center. It ran from 7 Jan 2026 to 22 Mar 2026 in a 2,283-seat house.
Is this ranked by tickets sold or by revenue?
By revenue — the total value of tickets actually paid for, not the number of tickets and not seat occupancy. That favours productions with a high price per seat and long runs in large houses.
Which venue appears most often in the TOP 20?
KSPO DOME in Olympic Park, with 6 of the twenty: NCT DREAM, RIIZE, TXT, BAEKHYUN, ZEROBASEONE and Cho Yong-pil. Inspire Arena in Incheon is second with 2.
How many times did Lim Young-woong chart in Q1 2026?
Three: Seoul (Gocheok Sky Dome, #7), Busan (BEXCO, #9) and Daejeon (Daejeon Convention Center (DCC), #16). No other artist placed three separate cities in the list this quarter.
What was the genre split of the Q1 2026 TOP 20?
Popular music 11 (55%), Musical 7 (35%), Play 2 (10%). Within popular music, 7 of the 11 were idol concerts.
How many of the TOP 20 ran outside the quarter?
7 of the 20 had opened before 1 January 2026, and 2 of those ran past 31 March: Death Note (to 25 May 2026) and Sleep No More Seoul (to 27 Sep 2026). Kinky Boots and Beetlejuice both closed in late March.
What do the seat counts in the table mean?
The capacity of the hall the production played, not tickets sold. KOPIS registers a complex as a facility and its halls separately, so KSPO DOME's 15,000 is that hall rather than all of Olympic Park. Daejeon Convention Center (DCC), Exhibition Hall 2 and The McKittrick Hotel Seoul have no seat count on record, shown here as "not reported".
Where does this data come from?
KOPIS, the Korea Performing Arts Box Office Information System run under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which collects ticket-sales data from venues nationwide. Each run, venue and seat count in this column was checked back against the record KOPIS holds for that production.
Related pages
Performances — search and filter every listing Venues — capacity, facilities and access Visiting tips — guides to the big houses News — the latest from the box office
Source: KOPIS box-office data, ranked by ticket revenue for Q1 2026 (January–March).
Method: Ranked by revenue rather than attendance; for a run crossing the quarter boundary, only the revenue inside the quarter counts. Runs, venues and seat counts were checked against KOPIS's own records.
The figures in this column (the calendar, the genre donut and pictogram, the venue ranking and the regional map) were all derived and drawn by the PUBLICAi editorial team from KOPIS open data.
