According to the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, New Japan Pro Wrestling had their lowest annual attendance over the last year since the 1970s.
The report mentions that the attendance drop is largely due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with many of the venues forcing NJPW to run events at a limited capacity. Roughly 183,541 fans attended 157 shows in 2021, an average of 1,161 fans per show. Prior to the COVID outbreak NJPW had 410,000 in paid attendance for 2019, and 223,903 in paid attendance for 2020.
Despite the poor attendance numbers NJPW did turn a small profit in the last fiscal year thanks to salary cuts in the front office, online merchandise sales, and New Japan World doing steady business. Former president Harold Meij leaving also helped a great deal as his salary was around one million dollars.
