The 57th edition of the World Series of Poker has wrapped up after nearly two months of action in Las Vegas. While the Main Event champion will not be crowned until the delayed final table resumes in early August, the rest of the summer is now in the books and the numbers once again underline the scale of poker’s biggest annual festival.
The 2026 WSOP featured 100 live bracelet events, attracting a record 251,899 entries and generating nearly $470 million in prize money. Although prize pools fell just short of last year’s all-time high, participation continued to grow, setting another attendance record.
“The 57th annual World Series of Poker proved that Las Vegas remains the undisputed epicenter of the poker universe,” said Ty Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of the WSOP, in a press release.
“The energy inside Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas was nothing short of electric. What is truly remarkable this year is how our community expanded far beyond the physical walls of the casino floor. We are incredibly proud of this summer’s success and cannot wait to witness the Final Nine battle for the World Championship on ESPN next month,” Stewart added.
2026 WSOP at a Glance
- 100 live bracelet events
- 251,899 total entries (new all-time record)
- $469.9 million in prize money awarded
- $47.3 million collected in tournament fees
- $33.1 million retained by WSOP
- $14.2 million paid to dealers and tournament staff
- 9,208 Main Event entries
- $85.6 million Main Event prize pool
Another Record Summer
The record attendance came despite prize pools falling slightly from 2025. Players collectively paid just over $517 million in buy-ins, of which $469.9 million was returned as prize money. The remainder, $47.3 million, was collected in tournament fees, making the 2026 festival the second-largest WSOP ever by prize money behind last year’s edition, which awarded $481 million.
Of the $47.3 million in fees, approximately $33.1 million was retained by WSOP, while the remaining $14.2 million was allocated to dealers and tournament staff.
The $10,000 Main Event attracted 9,208 players, producing an $85.6 million prize pool. While attendance was down from the record-breaking fields of the previous two years, it still ranks as the fourth-largest Main Event in WSOP history.
WSOP Stats Last Five Editions (2022 – 2026)
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Prize Money Awarded | $333.3M | $403.7M | $437.2M | $481.7M | $469.9M |
| Avg Prize Pool per Bracelet | $3.7M | $4.2M | $4.4M | $4.8M | $4.6M |
| Entries | 182,662 | 215,362 | 228,413 | 246,960 | 251,899 |
| Avg Entries | 2076 | 2267 | 2307 | 2470 | 2519 |
| Main Event | 8663 | 10,043 | 10,112 | 9735 | 9208 |
| >$1M Prize Pools | 71 | 75 | 84 | 90 | 90 |
| >$5M Prize Pools | 16 | 19 | 19 | 29 | 26 |
| >5000 Entries | 11 | 12 | 12 | 15 | 12 |
| >10,000 Entries | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 7 |
Mixed Results Across the Schedule
Although the series as a whole set another participation record, attendance trends varied across the schedule.
Many of the largest recreational events continued to grow. Mystery Millions led the way with 22,811 entries, the biggest field of the 2026 series, the largest Mystery Millions ever, and the largest $1,000 buy-in live poker tournament in history. Monster Stack, Mini Main Event, and Ultra Stack also attracted larger fields than last year, helped in part by the addition of extra starting flights.
Other marquee tournaments, including the Colossus, Millionaire Maker, and Summer Celebration, finished broadly in line with their 2025 numbers. The biggest exception was the $300 Gladiators of Poker, which recorded a sharp decline after being moved to a slot following the Main Event.
Beyond No-Limit Hold’em, mixed games, draw variants, freezeouts, and several Pot-Limit Omaha events also posted healthy numbers. The Ladies Championship set another attendance record with 1,368 entries, while the Seniors Championship continued its steady growth.
The $1,000 Mystery Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha also made history, attracting 4,764 entries to become the largest live PLO tournament ever held.
High rollers were one of the few areas that consistently underperformed. Almost every event with a buy-in of $25,000 or more drew smaller fields than last year. That was hardly unexpected. The crypto market has been hit hard over the past year. At the same time, recent changes to the US tax code now limit gambling loss deductions to 90% instead of 100%, while WSOP also increased rake across many of its high roller events. Together, those factors likely contributed to the decline.
Based on Poker Industry PRO’s comparison of like-for-like events, around 40% of tournaments attracted larger fields than in 2025, while approximately 60% experienced year-over-year declines.
More Numbers from WSOP 2026:
- 149 represented across the 2026 WSOP field
- 35,157 places paid throughout the series
- 41 seven-figure prizes awarded
- 57 events generated prize pools exceeding $2 million, matching last year’s record
- 8 events produced prize pools of more than $10 million
- 7 tournaments attracted more than 10,000 entries, up from five in 2025
More Than Five Decades of Growth
With the conclusion of the 2026 festival, the WSOP has now awarded more than 2,000 live bracelets, generated over $5.6 billion in live prize money, and attracted nearly 2.6 million entries since the series began in 1970.
The growth of the series has accelerated rapidly in recent years. The last five editions alone have generated $2.1 billion in prize money and attracted 1.1 million entries, accounting for 37.5% of all prize money awarded and 42.3% of all entries in WSOP history.
WSOP Live Bracelets All-Time Stats:
- Live Bracelets: 2049
- Prize Money Awarded: $5,626,627,465 ($5.6 billion)
- Entries: 2,597,341
- Main Event Entries: 168,253
