Xiao Zhan generated 200 million yuan in just 4 hours, and a single pendant product reached 20 million yuan in sales: the concert industry has entered the era of "non-ticketing revenue"
"I couldn't get a concert ticket, so this is my first time buying official merchandise..." Comments like this from Xiao Zhan's fans have drawn widespread attention recently.
Everyone knows that Xiao Zhan's concert tickets are extremely hard to grab, and some fans even joked that it is "harder than winning the Double Color Ball lottery". Now, under the dual pressure of strict real-name ticketing rules and extremely high ticket-grabbing difficulty, when the threshold of "meeting the artist offline in person" is raised infinitely, official merchandise is becoming an affordable alternative outlet for fans to vent their emotions and build group identity.
From Xiao Zhan's official merchandise exceeding 200 million yuan in sales just 4 hours after release, to Mayday's single light stick product recording nearly 7 million yuan in sales, and then to artists like Zhang Xincheng launching full merchandise lines priced from dozens to hundreds of yuan, these SKUs that often cost hundreds or even thousands of yuan, and these non-ticket revenues totaling millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan, have been developing quietly ever since we started paying attention to this sector last year.
But in 2026, how did this business that once seemed to rely on "impulsive consumption by fans" begin to evolve into a "lifestyle-oriented" and "light luxury" trend this year? What precise industrial logic and consumer psychology are hidden behind it? Why have terms like "quality control" and "premium" become high-frequency words in fan communities? With this curiosity, the correspondent of Yule Zibenlun interviewed countless fans, and finally 4 of them were willing to let down their guard and talk to us.
# This article has interviewed four relevant people, who are the 342nd to 345th interviewees of "Yule Zibenlun" in 2026
The "involution" of merchandise: from light sticks to streetwear brands and tiered pricing
If one word is used to sum up the changes of concert merchandise in 2026 compared with last year, "lifestyle-oriented" and "light luxury" can be said to be the most accurate footnotes.
Merchandise is no longer a "souvenir" that gathers dust after the concert ends, but is becoming a "streetwear item" for fans to wear daily and show off on social occasions.
Compared with last year, the most intuitive upgrade lies in the comprehensive expansion of product categories and the sinking of design.
Last year, the light sticks at Su Jianxin's concert were still complained by fans as being made of "plastic foam"; but this year, the merchandise for his "Live to the Fullest" tour directly includes ink-splashed shirts priced at 299 yuan, embroidered washed baseball caps at 99 yuan, sock sets at 49 yuan, and metal bracelets at 99 yuan.
From the perspective of our editorial team, this pricing strategy actually understands fan psychology very well. The 299-yuan shirt printed with "ALLIN" and "Live to the Fullest" represents not just a piece of clothing, but a "battle suit" that must be worn when going to the scene; the 99-yuan cap and bracelet are souvenirs that fans can afford with a little extra effort; as for the 49-yuan socks, they are not expensive anyway, and buying a pair makes fans feel like they haven't come for nothing.
This price range spanning from dozens of yuan to hundreds of yuan allows both student fans and working fans to find the most comfortable way to spend money, and willingly pay for the emotional experience brought by the concert.
Zhang Xincheng's merchandise lineup this year also reflects this trend, perfectly demonstrating the strategic progress of the artist's team in the commercialization of peripheral products.
Among the merchandise for the 2026 "New Journey" tour, the cheering stick is priced at 259 yuan, T-shirt at 139 yuan, cap at 129 yuan, canvas bag at 89 yuan, and portable tumbler at 119 yuan.
Different from last year when cheering sticks were given away for free, this year they are sold for a fee. This change once sparked discussions in the fan circle, but a fan explained the logic behind it in communication: "Although the cheering sticks at last year's concert were free, the quantity was limited. This year, as more new fans joined the fandom, the old version was even speculated to sell for 800 yuan on second-hand platforms, leading to a severe overflow of demand. The official decision this year to release a newly designed cheering stick with more complex craftsmanship is not only to take the premium back to the official side, but also to meet the ownership demand of new fans."
Moreover, the artist's team has also realized that merchandise can completely act as a formal consumer product to carry fans' emotional sustenance.
The data of top artists perfectly demonstrates the sustainability of this business. According to statistics from Yule Zibenlun, the official merchandise for Xiao Zhan's "Exit·Us" concert tour went on sale on October 20, and only 4 hours later it topped the historical champion of all star merchandise categories on QQ Music. Many in-stock products were quickly sold out and switched to pre-order mode, with sales conservatively estimated to exceed 200 million yuan.
Among them, the 169-yuan baseball cap ranked first in sales across all categories, and clothing products such as hoodies and T-shirts took the top three spots on the sales list. The platform has set a rule of limiting 10 items per ID, and many in-stock products were quickly sold out and switched to long-cycle pre-orders.
This strategy of "full category coverage + purchase limit to control rhythm + sufficient supply" directly uses official production capacity to squeeze the living space of scalpers and pirated "merchandise products".
Some veteran artists, such as Jay Chou and Mayday, have taken the route of IP spillover. Jay Chou's official 2D IP "Chou Ge" set up pop-up stores in four major business districts during the Jinan concert, with offline sales exceeding 10 million yuan, and many limited-edition merchandise sold out quickly.
His co-branded product with JordanBrand is only sold in streetwear stores, completely breaking out of the fan context and entering the sneaker culture circle. This year, Mayday's IP plush pendant "Boboo" has sold more than 100,000 units in total on Tmall, with sales of a single product approaching 20 million yuan.
It can be seen that when the IP is strong enough, even a light stick or a plush pendant can support a single-product business worth tens of millions of yuan.
You can also "be present" even without a ticket: compensatory consumption, small card arbitrage and social currency
Going back to the fan's speech at the beginning and examining it carefully, this sentence actually reveals the most underlying driving force of the merchandise economy: compensatory consumption and emotional companionship.
The supply of concert tickets is absolutely rigid. After the Nanjing stop of Xiao Zhan's concert was officially announced, the number of people marking "want to watch" on the platform quickly exceeded 2.5 million. On second-hand platforms, the premium for infield tickets ranges from several thousand yuan to tens of thousands of yuan, yet tickets are still extremely hard to get.
Tickets are a physical gate, and merchandise is a gap opened next to the gate. People who can't get in will at least buy something at this gap to prove that they "participated".
"Being unable to buy tickets and turning to buy merchandise is actually a kind of 'emotional companionship'", a senior fan named Yiyi (pseudonym) who has bought many concert merchandise shared with Yule Zibenlun, "I don't lack a thermos cup at all, but when I saw the portable tumbler with the 'NOWJOURNEY' cat logo among Zhang Xincheng's merchandise, I placed an order without hesitation. Drinking water from this cup in the office every day feels like he is accompanying me. As long as I see these things with concert elements placed on my desk, I will feel that I was 'present' at that wonderful night. The meaning of merchandise is to extend the warm and enjoyable emotion from the concert to every day of my daily life."
This kind of consumption has extremely strong "physical evidence attributes". Fans often prefer categories that have both practical value and commemorative significance: ticket holders can properly store the hard-won concert tickets; luggage tags can be hung on the suitcase to take to the next city; badges can be pinned on canvas bags as secret signals to recognize fellow fans.
AI generated by Yule Zibenlun
For example, wearing that shirt printed with "SIN" from Su Jianxin out in public is a silent self-introduction. Merchandise is no longer a consumable that "gets put in the drawer after the concert", but an identity label that can enter daily life.
A more delicate mechanism is hidden in the circulation of small cards and the second-hand market. Take Teens in Times as an example, their concert merchandise often adopts a blind box mechanism of "only open to get the card": fans buy a full set of merchandise blind boxes in order to draw the random small card of their favorite member, and resell the non-target cards after opening.
"A set of concert merchandise often costs one or two hundred yuan. If I keep every set and let them gather dust, I, as a student fan, can't afford it at all. So in our circle, 'opening cards to get cash back' has become a daily routine", Youyou (pseudonym) revealed her daily logic of trading small cards to Yule Zibenlun.
Moreover, in the secondary market composed of these cards, Youyou has seen too many crazy stories. She admitted that she once witnessed a polaroid small card that might cost only a few cents, because it combined the four elements of "popular member + first show + unbound + magic serial number", being priced at 600 yuan on Xianyu, and even there was no stock at that price. "Of course, if it is a less popular member or a less popular show, you may have to wait a long time for someone to ask even if you list it at 30 yuan."
The four elements correspond to popularity first, which is the basic foundation; the second is the show, if it is the first show or a special commemorative show, the price will double directly; the third is "unbound", which means the anti-counterfeiting binding code on the card has not been scratched and used, and it has the highest premium; the last is the serial number, if the tail number of the serial number at the bottom of the card is "888" or a number related to the idol's birthday, it is a "magic serial number".
For Youyou, the excitement of this "blind box opening" and the transactions in the second-hand market greatly extend the concert experience. Youyou said, "Many of my good friends are people I met in the super topic when we exchanged cards, bargained, and finally met offline for face-to-face transactions back then."
Source: Provided by the fan
"In order to collect a full set of small cards, I often buy three to four identical merchandise blind boxes", Ashui (pseudonym), a senior fan who often exchanges cards in the "transfer station" of the super topic, also revealed the fun behind it to Yule Zibenlun, "For example, a set of merchandise costs 178 yuan. If I can't draw the member I want, I will sell the remaining clothes and sundries at fair prices on Xianyu, or directly 'exchange cards' with