Quick answer: 6.5 million visitors, 6.5 million litres of beer, 116,000 intercepted steins and 764 tonnes of waste, all in 16 days. A litre of beer costs €14.80 to €15.90 in 2026. The numbers below come from the City of Munich's own closing reports.
Oktoberfest is measured more carefully than most national statistics. Munich publishes a closing report every year, and the figures are the fastest way to grasp what a festival of this size actually involves.
The headline figures
| Measure | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visitors | 7.2 million | 6.7 million | 6.5 million |
| Beer served | 7.4 million litres | 7.0 million litres | 6.5 million litres |
| Beer mugs intercepted | 115,600 | 98,000 | 116,000 |
| Lost property items | 3,250 | 3,500 | 4,500 |
| Waste | - | 802 tonnes | 764 tonnes |
| Electricity | - | 2.8 million kWh | 2.8 million kWh |
The pattern in that table is the story of the modern Wiesn. Visitor numbers are flat to slightly down, beer consumption is falling faster than attendance, and the amount of stuff people lose keeps going up.
One litre per person, which nobody believes
Divide 6.5 million litres by 6.5 million visitors and you get almost exactly one Maß each. The image of Oktoberfest as an endurance event is built on a minority of visitors and a very large number of photographs.
Two things explain the gap between reputation and arithmetic. Plenty of attendees never enter a tent at all, coming for the rides, the food or the parade. And beer consumption has dropped for three years running while attendance has been stable, which means the average visitor is drinking less than they used to.
Alcohol-free beer demand rose 6 to 10 percent in 2025 depending on the tent, and non-alcoholic drinks overall were up 3 percent. Munich's biggest party is quietly sobering up.
The price of a Maß, 2010 to 2026
| Year | Price for one litre of Wiesn beer |
|---|---|
| 2010 | About €8.95 on average |
| 2015 | About €10.55 on average |
| 2019 | €11.40 to €11.80 |
| 2020 and 2021 | Festival cancelled |
| 2022 | €12.60 to €13.80 |
| 2023 | €12.60 to €14.90 |
| 2024 | €13.60 to €15.30 |
| 2025 | €14.50 to €15.80 |
| 2026 | €14.80 to €15.90 |
A Maß has risen roughly 70 percent since 2010. The 2026 increase, about 2.4 percent on average, is one of the smaller jumps of the past decade and sits close to German inflation. The cheapest beer is traditionally at the Augustiner-Festhalle, and the most expensive is usually in one of the newer or smaller tents.
The other prices matter more than visitors expect. Soft drinks are sold by the litre too, and non-alcoholic options are not cheap: table water runs around €11 and lemonade around €12.50 per litre. There is no cheap way to spend a day in a tent.
The infrastructure behind it
- 42 hectares of festival grounds, roughly 60 football pitches, in the middle of a major city.
- Around 17 large tents plus a couple of dozen smaller ones, all built from scratch each summer and taken down after the closing Sunday.
- Six breweries allowed to serve, all of which must brew within Munich city limits.
- 2.8 million kWh of electricity, comparable to the annual consumption of hundreds of households.
- 764 tonnes of waste in 2025, down from 802 the year before.
Everything above is temporary. The tents that look like permanent buildings exist for about six weeks a year, including construction and teardown.
The lost and found, which is its own genre
4,500 items were handed in during the 2025 festival, up from 3,500 the year before. The recurring categories are phones, wallets, keys, jackets, spectacles and identity documents. The occasional entries that make the annual news reports include dentures, wedding rings, hearing aids, crutches and, in some years, a wheelchair.
The lost property office in Munich keeps items for months and reunites a surprising share of them with their owners. Beer mugs are a different matter: 116,000 were taken off people at the exits in 2025, and those are only the ones that were caught.
What the numbers do not capture
Two things resist measurement. The first is the local economy around the festival, from hotels to taxis to the Tracht shops that do most of their annual business in three weeks. The second is that Oktoberfest is, for a large share of visitors, a family daytime event rather than a drinking marathon. The afternoon volume limit on tent music exists precisely for that.
For how those rules came about, read the history of Oktoberfest. For what to actually do when you get there, read Oktoberfest traditions explained.
Figures from the City of Munich's official closing reports and the published Oktoberfest price lists. The 2026 prices were released in July 2026.
Five-minute version
Our Oktoberfest 2026 page collects the dates, the rules and three free courses you can take in the browser, including Untold Mysteries of Oktoberfest, which covers the beer pipelines under the tent floors and what turns up in the lost and found.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much beer is drunk at Oktoberfest?
About 6.5 million litres at the 2025 festival, down from 7 million in 2024 and 7.4 million in 2023. Spread across roughly 6.5 million visitors, that is about one litre per person, far less than the festival's reputation suggests.
How much does a Maß cost at Oktoberfest 2026?
Between €14.80 and €15.90 depending on the tent, an average increase of about 2.4 percent over 2025. The cheapest beer is traditionally at the Augustiner-Festhalle. Non-alcoholic drinks are also sold by the litre, with table water around €11.
How many people visit Oktoberfest?
Around 6.5 million in 2025 and 6.7 million in 2024. Attendance has hovered between six and seven million for most of the past decade, constrained less by demand than by the physical capacity of the Theresienwiese.
How many beer mugs are stolen from Oktoberfest?
Security staff intercepted 116,000 mugs in 2025, up from 98,000 in 2024. Those are only the ones caught on the way out, and taking one is technically theft, though most people caught simply hand it back.
How big is the Oktoberfest site?
The Theresienwiese covers about 42 hectares, roughly 60 football pitches, and hosts around 17 large tents plus a couple of dozen smaller ones, all built and dismantled every year.
Is Oktoberfest getting less alcoholic?
Slightly. Beer consumption has fallen for three consecutive years while visitor numbers held steady, and demand for alcohol-free beer rose 6 to 10 percent in 2025 depending on the tent. Non-alcoholic drinks overall were up 3 percent.
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