DEAG Reports Record Revenue & Earnings In Financial Year 2025

DEAG Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG) reports “a very successful financial year 2025, achieving new record highs in both revenue and earnings,” according to the press release accompanying the company’s earnings statement.

DEAG, by its own admission, “increased the number of tickets sold for concerts and events, successfully continued its buy-and-build strategy, reduced minority interests in its holdings as planned, and further expanded its international footprint.”

Revenue rose by around 33% to €490 million ($573 million) during the reporting period, with €167.2 million ($195.5 million) attributable to the fourth quarter alone (+42.9% year-on-year).

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) amounted to €32.1 million ($37.5 million), more than doubling compared to the previous year (prior year: €14.4 million). The EBITDA margin increased significantly from 3.9% to 6.6% in 2025.

In addition, the number of tickets sold increased to more than 12 million, exceeding the previous year’s level of 11 million, with a substantial proportion of ticket sales generated via DEAG’s proprietary ticketing platforms. By the end of 2025, DEAG had already sold around 3 million tickets for events scheduled to take place in 2026. These advance sales provide a solid foundation for the remainder of the financial year and ensure a high level of visibility and planning reliability.

The resulting revenue already secured amounts to €151.5 million ($177.2 million). In the financial year 2026, DEAG expects ticket sales to remain at a consistently high level.

As part of DEAG’s buy-and-build strategy, the company acquired a majority stake in the Rockharz Festival – the largest Rock and Metal festival in eastern Germany and one of the largest in Germany with a capacity of more than 25,000. Thereby, DEAG further strengthened its market position in the festival segment.

Other festivals under DEAG’s ownership include Indian Spirit, NATURE ONE, Belladrum Tartan Heart, and the Kessel Festival, all of which contributed to a strong summer for the company.

DEAG’s Italian business MC2 Live, acquired in 2024, reported an exceptionally positive business performance in its first full financial year under the new umbrella.

In parallel and according to plan, DEAG continued to reduce minority interests in its particularly successful Group companies and increased its stake in Fane Productions, the fast-growing and highly profitable market leader in the Spoken Word & Literary Events segment, as well as in the UK ticketing platform gigantic.com. DEAG now owns 100% of both businesses.

Among DEAG’s most successful touring artists last year are Ed Sheeran, Sam Fender, Stereophonics; Iron Maiden on a tour of Germany, Italy and Switzerland; Marilyn Manson, Maite Kelly, Tream, Böhse Onkelz and Till Lindemann, who sold more than 190,000 tickets for his most recent run of Europe.

The event series “An Evening with…” and the lit.COLOGNE literature festival within the Spoken Word & Literary Events segment were once again major successes, as were DEAG’s Christmas Gardens, which attracted around 1.6 million visitors, and events such as “Disney on Ice,” Cavalluna and the Gianni Versace Retrospective.

The current financial year 2026 is characterized by a high density of events, just like the previous year. Besides tours and concerts by artists like Judas Priest, Die Toten Hosen, Bring Me The Horizon, Bausa, Tokio Hotel, Deep Purple and Gorillaz, visitors can also look forward to events such as the monster truck show “Monster Jam” at the Schalke arena; “The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring in Concert” with the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; cooking shows with Yotam Ottolenghi, who will also present his new book “SIMPLE TOO”; and exciting evenings as part of the “An Evening with…” format, featuring, among others, actor Bryan Cranston and Formula 1 world champion Damon Hill.

DEAG has continued to consistently pursue its M&A activities even after the end of the reporting period. In the first quarter of 2026, the company acquired all remaining minority interests in the concert and tour promoters Wizard Live and LiveGeist Entertainment and in Wizard Communications, as well as a majority participation in the music festival “Juicy Beats”.

Furthermore, DEAG acquired a majority stake in conneccted: EVENTS & LIVE MARKETING GmbH via its subsidiary Mewes Entertainment Group. As part of the ongoing consolidation of the Live Entertainment industry in Europe, DEAG intends to continue playing an active role and to further drive its growth through M&A.

DEAG’s promotion business is complemented by strong proprietary ticketing platforms as well as a diversified event portfolio. Accordingly, DEAG considers itself well positioned to continue its medium- and long-term growth trajectory, subject to possible macroeconomic developments.

Notwithstanding this, Group revenue for financial year 2026 is expected to be temporarily below the previous year’s level due to the cyclical nature of the Live Entertainment industry and the event calendar. With revenue still expected to exceed €400 million ($468 million), the EBITDA margin is expected to increase further. For subsequent years, the company anticipates a further phase of growth.

Detlef Kornett, Group CEO of DEAG, commented, “The measures we implemented in the transformation year 2024 to enhance our competitiveness, profitability and efficiency had a clearly positive impact in financial year 2025. We are very pleased with the strong business performance, to which all parts of our Group contributed equally. DEAG is therefore very well positioned to sustainably continue its organic and inorganic growth strategy trajectory going forward.”

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