Big-event specialists Sands China Ltd and Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd have so far seen an aggregate 42.5 percent year-on-year fall in their second-quarter 2026 Cotai concert and show bookings in Macau. That is according to checks by GGRAsia. Sands China was the bigger contributor to the decline.
The analysis covers show sessions hosted at the performance venues operated by Galaxy Entertainment, including its circa 16,000-capacity Galaxy Arena at Galaxy Macau, and those by Sands China, including its circa 14,000-capacity Venetian Arena at The Venetian Macao. Given the lead times on staging large shows, the second-quarter 2026 figures might not change by June-end.
The two operators had an aggregate of 50 show sessions scheduled in the second-quarter, April to June period, from GGRAsia checks. That is down 42.5 percent on the figure of 87 staged in the same period last year as assessed by GGRAsia. Many stars are having a maximum of two concerts across a single weekend this time, compared to some ‘mini-residencies’ across several weekends in second-quarter 2025.
During the April to June period, Galaxy Arena was host to 16 show sessions, and Venetian Arena was at 7. In the same period in 2025, Galaxy Arena had 18 show sessions, and Venetian Arena had 12.
GGRAsia’s review for the two operators’ hosted shows excludes private or invitation-only events, and sports events.
In the second quarter this year, the two arenas collectively hosted acts from Asian pop artists including Billkin, Chen Linong, Hailai Amu, Exo, Wu Bai & China Blue, Kelly Chen, IVE and DxS. None of the acts cover more than a weekend, GGRAsia has understood from show-calendar checks.
Second-quarter 2025 had seen the two arenas in aggregate host performances from Asian artists G Dragon, Jacky Cheung and Sammi Cheung, with the latter two Hong Kong pop acts having performed over consecutive weekends. A series of concerts by Jacky Cheung in June and July 2025, in particular, had been mentioned by banking institution Citigroup as lifting the city’s premium mass gambling business.
Second-quarter 2026 concert data so far for Galaxy Entertainment and Sands China’s Cotai venues indicate that their first-half 2026 shows will tally 116, down 14.7 percent from the 136 staged in first-half 2025.
Galaxy Entertainment’s first-half 2026 show tally is on track for 77, down 3.8 percent from first-half 2025’s tally of 80. Sands China’s first-half 2026 show sessions so far, have reached 39, down 30.4 percent from 56 in the same period last year.
Industry perspective
GGRAsia sought comment from a local events specialist regarding the second-quarter and first-half 2026 data.
Lawrence Che Fok Sang, chief executive and a founder at Macau-based entertainment production company Chessman Entertainment & Production Co Ltd, said this year’s line-up will still have had strong appeal to gaming and non-gaming patrons.
An example was Taiwan rock act ‘Wu Bai & China Blue’, which recently performed at Galaxy Arena.
Though he noted it was “true” that 2025 had marked the year “some ‘A-list’ artists” had “ended their concert cycle featuring Macau stops” that had offered multiple shows.
Grant Chum Kwan Lock, Sands China’s chief executive and president, had acknowledged in the first-quarter earnings call of the firm’s parent Las Vegas Sands Corp, that bookings for“big tour acts” had “slowed down” so far in 2026, versus 2025 and 2024.
Mr Chum had acknowledged that entertainment content is utilised to drive visits to the company’s casino resorts.
The Sands China CEO also noted on the call: “We have the ability to bring content of different size, different spectatorship because we have access to both the Venetian Arena, which is the bigger arena, as well as the mid-size Londoner Arena.” The latter has a circa 6,000 capacity.
The FIFA World Cup 2026 football tournament, running from June 11 to July 19, was likely to be a distraction for Macau casino customers, as the sports event might divert money from their casino gaming budgets, several investment analysts suggested in recent memos on the sector.
But from mid-July, a “busy” calendar of concerts and events were likely to be “catalysts” that could drive Macau’s casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) recovery, remarked Citigroup in a note issued earlier this week.
