The Fringe Society has published some official figures for this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, revealing that 2.6 million tickets were issued for 3893 shows, with 1770 producers, programmers and bookers attending this year’s event.

There were 53,942 performances of shows in 301 venues, with performers from 62 countries taking part.

Commenting on the stats, Fringe Society boss Tony Lankester says, “despite many ongoing challenges facing the Fringe community”, the Edinburgh Fringe remains “the single best platform in the world for artists to showcase their work” and “a critical step in their professional journey”.

It’s actually hard to get completely accurate figures for the Edinburgh Fringe, with so many free and unticketed shows. And while the Fringe Society provides the central programme and box office for the festival, not every performer formally affiliates with the organisation.

That said, going by the official stats, ticket sales were slightly down in 2025 compared with 2024. That might be the impact of the big Oasis concerts that clashed with the Festival this year or the down time at the start of the month caused by Storm Flores. Or it could simply be part of a general trend.

Concerns are expressed pretty much every year that the Fringe doesn’t pull in a big enough total audience given the huge number of shows being staged.

Some have also suggested that – with the general cost of living crisis – audience members aren’t staying at the Festival quite as long as they used to and, as a result, are taking fewer risks when deciding what to see.

Speaking to The Herald as this year’s Festival reached its conclusion, the boss of Fringe venue Gilded Balloon, Katy Koren, expressed concern that it’s getting harder for smaller venues and less well established performers to find an audience.

“There is a issue this year that small venues have not had enough ticket sales”, she told the newspaper. “There’s not enough audience for the amount of shows this year and that’s something that nobody wants to say, but it’s true and the smaller shows have struggled”.

The Edinburgh International Festival that also takes place each August has also published some official figures for 2025.

It says that over 111,000 audience members from 91 countries attending shows in its programme, which included seven world premieres, eight UK and Scottish premieres, and two European premieres.