What type of Broadway shows are audiences gravitating to the most?

Before COVID-19 rocked the Broadway community, statistics show that attendance at Broadway shows was actually reaching a peak during the 2018–2019 season. But what kind of shows are audiences flocking to the most? The Broadway League created this data chart showing the attendance at Broadway shows in New York from 2006 to 2019. They are separated by three categories; musicals, plays, and specials.

The lowest point was during the 2012–2013 season where we had the least amount of attendance at plays, musicals and no specials. In total there were only 12 million people in attendance at Broadway shows in total.

Musicals always get the most attendance out of the three categories. During the 2019–2019 season, they had over 11 million people in attendance to musicals while that same season, only 2 million people went to go see plays.

The season that had the most attendance to Broadway Plays was during the 2018–2019 season, with approximately 2.9 million people in attendance. The 2018–2019 season is the one with the most attendance to Broadway as a whole, with a grand total of approximately 15 million people.

Specials were the least popular category, with many seasons not even having specials, the most attendance during a season was the 2008–2009 season with 238k people in attendance.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the amount of attendance at Broadway, it has recently been getting more steady in the coming months with more shows re-opening and transferring to Broadway.