The Las Vegas business year in its numbers, regenerated monthly from this site's datastore. Every figure links to its source.
The desk, deterministically · Oct 1, 2026
Visitation is flat: 3.27M in January, n/a in August. Occupancy held between 77.2% and 84.8%. Rate paid for it: ADR fell from $200.15 in January to n/a by August. The charts on the Economy page carry every figure back to its source.
Group business keeps the headline flat. Convention attendance ran n/a in August and rose double digits across the first half while leisure softened. Harry Reid passengers were 4,412,684 in August, -7.6% year over year (airport release). Fewer people are flying in. The ones who come on a badge spend more: about $1,600 per convention trip against roughly $1,200 leisure (LVCVA profile).
Strip win was $684,087,062 in August, inside a year that is still ahead of itself: Statewide +3.14%; Clark County +2.8%; Strip +0.7%; Downtown -2.96%. Monthly softness against a positive year-to-date line is deceleration, not decline, and the comparison base is a record 2025. Downtown ($61,501,577 in August) keeps outgrowing the Strip in percentage terms, consistent with where board sentiment has been warmest all year.
Convention business explains the occupancy line. CES opened the year with 148,392 audited participants, up 4% year over year; 4,100+ exhibitors across 2.6M+ net sq ft (CES 2026 (audited attendance)). Through the half: Convention attendance up 12.6% through H1 2026 to roughly 3.64 million attendees (~409,000 more than H1 2025); overall visitor volume up 0.2% YTD to 19.58 million (LVCVA convention attendance YTD). A convention attendee books midweek rooms at contracted rates and spends on the show floor. That is the strong leg. It is not the whole story: occupancy has slipped at the operator level and executives pin the rate slide on leisure discounting and Canadian softness (evidence). The claim check lives on the Conventions desk.
Sports now schedules demand the leisure calendar no longer supplies. Formula 1 drew 300,000+ spectators across three days; third consecutive sellout after ~30% ticket-price cuts (F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix 2025 attendance), against $934 million economic impact and ~4,500 jobs from the 2024 race; 2025 edition expected to exceed it (F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix economic impact). The National Finals Rodeo holds December up: ~170,000-175,000 expected attendees and ~$200 million economic impact (2024 actual: 170,045 attendance, $156M impact); 40th year in Las Vegas (National Finals Rodeo (NFR) 2025). The tenant teams draw steadily (61 straight sellouts at Michelob Ultra Arena (~10,500 capacity); reigning WNBA champions (Las Vegas Aces sellout streak)), and the next venue is under construction: $2B, ~33,000-seat domed ballpark on former Tropicana site on time and on budget for completion Feb 29, 2028; foundation complete, first roof trusses rising; ~$400M spent (Athletics Las Vegas ballpark). The spikes are not guaranteed: F1 race-weekend stays repriced from $2,314 in 2023 to $1,372 in 2024 (evidence), and impact figures are gross spending without netting displacement. The claim check lives on the Sports desk.
Entertainment sets room rates now. Sphere posted Sphere segment revenue $226.4 million, up 29% ($50.8M) year over year; total company revenue $313.6M (Sphere segment revenue Q2 2026), with Surpassed $400 million in ticket sales with over 3 million total tickets sold (The Wizard of Oz at Sphere ticket sales). The residency business runs alongside it: 25+ confirmed residencies across six major venues; Sphere hosts nine acts in 2026 (Eagles, Backstreet Boys, Zac Brown Band, ILLENIUM, Phish, No Doubt, Kenny Chesney, Carin Leon, Metallica) (2026 residency slate), led by $197 million+ across 110 shows -- highest-grossing post-Celine Dion residency at a non-Sphere venue (Bruno Mars at Dolby Live (residency gross)). Whether that converts into room rate is asserted by operators and not disclosed; the desk's adversarial check on the Nightlife desk rates the link plausible and unproven.
Across 8,487 property-relevant posts since January, the warmest rooms are Hard Rock Las Vegas (ex-Mirage) (+100 over 14 scored posts), Fontainebleau Las Vegas (+93 over 29 scored posts), ARIA Resort & Casino (+91 over 45 scored posts). The cool end is more instructive: Resorts World Las Vegas (+17, 12 scored), Flamingo Las Vegas (+40, 30 scored), Luxor (+48, 27 scored). Trip boards skew positive; read the spread between properties. It has been consistent: properties drawing fee and value complaints sit at the bottom all year, properties associated with comps and upgrades hold the top. Monthly detail per property is on the Sentiment page.
Offer language in board posts (free play mailers, waived fees, rate drops) ran Jan 40 · Feb 33 · Mar 57 · Apr 55 · May 69 · Jun 61 · Jul 62 · Aug 174 · Sep 237 · Oct 1. The desk's working hypothesis, so far unrefuted: operators discount on the boards before they discount in the rate card.
The dining market is about to get its first external ranking in a generation: Michelin returns to Las Vegas with the inaugural Southwest guide, the first stars here since the 2008-09 guide was discontinued. Stars move menus, chef recruitment, and what a resort can charge around a reservation. The selections reprice the top of the market in one evening. The recognition cycle already turned: Casa Playa (chef Sarah Thompson): James Beard Award WINNER, Best Chef: Southwest 2026 (ceremony June 15, 2026): first Las Vegas James Beard chef win in 15 years and first ever by a female Strip chef. The full recognition file is on the Dining desk.
Nightlife programming is shifting: Country crossover has formally arrived on the Strip: Dustin Lynch became the first country artist to headline a Wynn Nightlife residency, blending country hits with open-format dance remixes in a hybrid 'Club Set' aimed at both country and club audiences (source); Hip-hop and R&B programming migrated from Drai's to the mega-clubs after Drai's rooftop closed in 2025: Las Vegas Weekly reports Hakkasan has become 'hip-hop's new home on the Strip,' launching Wednesday R&Bae nights and dedicating its 10,000-plus-square-foot Ling Ling level to hip-hop (source). Programming mix shows who the clubs expect next; the full file is on the Nightlife desk.
The production-show roster is churning: 7 openings or announcements against 3 closings on the desk's current file, tracked with sources on the Entertainment desk. Theaters rarely sit dark here for long; what fills a room next says what the operator thinks a ticket is worth.
Off the Strip, EDC (500,000+ total attendance over three nights, May 15-17, 2026 (30th anniversary)) expands to two weekends in 2027. Against that, Brightline West's Las Vegas-to-Rancho Cucamonga high-speed rail is in civil construction along I-15 in 2026 (Las Vegas station parking garage taking shape), with passenger service pushed from 2028 to late 2029 amid rising costs. (source): the rail link that long-range demand forecasts assume.
The year's ownership account is consolidation at the edges: Golden Entertainment left the public market in April, and the desk's recent file runs through G2E 2026: Casino leaders debate prediction markets, Las Vegas outlook and global expansion (Yogonet); Hard Rock Casino Tejon names Mike Bean as new property president after first year of operations (Yogonet); Former gaming CEO Gavin Isaacs takes advisory seat on GLI board (Yogonet). Every operator's current roster, with sources and staleness flags tied to this desk's own coverage, sits on the operator pages.
Metro unemployment improved from 5.8% in January to 4.8% by August (BLS series), still elevated against the national rate, as usual for an economy this weighted to hospitality. The indexed career boards show 489 open roles concentrated in gaming operations, F&B and hotel operations: staffing for the fall group calendar, not contraction. Trendlines are on the Jobs page.
Next on the calendar: Metallica 'Life Burns Faster' Sphere residency (10/01); New Kids on the Block residency block (10/02); Jack White — Jack White Live 2026 (10/02); Wu-Tang Clan at T-Mobile Arena (10/03); NASCAR Cup Series South Point 400 (playoff race) (10/04). If group and events hold first-half pace, flat visitation with falling ADR is a mix shift. If the fall citywides miss, the same numbers mean demand loss. The full calendar filters by type.
Provenance: news collection began 2026-08-23, so story counts measure this desk's coverage rather than the year; board and social data reach back to January 1 via archive backfill; every economic figure links to where it was published. Causal claims carry adversarial verification files on their desk pages, counter-evidence included, and this report inherits their scoping when it regenerates.
Marked words are the terms the keyword lexicon counts. Each entry links to the original post. Media entries show the tone of coverage and never enter a board score.