NAB Show 2026 wraps with 58,000 attendees and a changing audience mix

The 2026 NAB Show closed Wednesday, having drawn more than 58,000 registered attendees from 146 countries, with organizers pointing to growth in three segments — content creators, corporate media professionals and sports organizations — as evidence that the show’s audience is expanding beyond its traditional broadcast industry base.

Nearly half of all attendees, 48%, were attending NAB Show for the first time, and 22% traveled from outside the United States. The international figure, however, was down compared with previous shows due to a variety of ongoing global concerns.

The number of registered content creators increased 140% over 2025. Corporate media professionals topped 13,000, nearly double the prior year. The sports contingent included representatives from approximately 75 professional teams, 22 leagues and governing bodies and 30 venues.

NAB Show 2026 opens with record company representation and a changing attendee mix

“It’s the entire team in sync, understanding how we need to super serve our incumbent audience, but also expanding the universe of who’s here into the creator economy, tapping into the Fortune 100 companies, all of whom are doing their own production, and elevating the conversations around sports,” said Curtis LeGeyt, president and chief executive of the National Association of Broadcasters, in an interview with NCS. 

The show featured more than 1,100 exhibitors across the equivalent of nearly eight soccer fields, including 132 first-time participants.

The completed renovation of the Las Vegas Convention Center provided a backdrop that Karen Chupka, executive vice president of NAB Show, said had been in planning for nearly two decades.

“Legacy media know the discipline of how to put content out at scale,” Chupka said. “Creators know how to do it at speed. Putting those two together is where the magic happens for the next generation of storytelling.”

Program highlights included an expanded four-day Sports Summit open to all attendees, a new enterprise video track for Fortune 1000 companies, and two dedicated AI pavilions.

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NAB Show New York returns Oct. 21–22, 2026, with the Las Vegas show next scheduled for April 3–7, 2027.