This Year’s Detroit Auto Show Attendance Was Either Really Good or Really Bad

Depending on your perspective, things are either going very well or very poorly for the 2.0 version of the Detroit Auto Show. Organizers released attendance figures for what once was the most important event in the automotive industry, and most importantly, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. But the numbers create a conundrum: is the convention center half full or half empty?

Over 275,000 visitors attended the 2025 edition of the Detroit show, which ran January 10-20. This year marked the show’s return to the winter season after a brief hiatus. It was canceled in 2024 and held in late summer (technically fall) in 2023 and 2022 to re-imagine the format and draw more visitors.

According to Automotive News, that’s the highest attendance since before the COVID-19 pandemic. The publication adds that the organizers are “thrilled”—and they should be, considering we’re talking about an event that many assumed wouldn’t come back at all. But here’s the less exciting news: the 275,000-plus figure represents a drop of over 60% compared to 2019 when 774,179 people went to the show.

Part of the problem is that carmakers didn’t have much to talk about at the 2025 Detroit show. Ford made the biggest splash by announcing the Mustang RTR and the Mustang GTD Spirit of America. Neither is truly new, both are off-shoots of the current-generation Mustang, and the RTR wasn’t even fully unveiled. Up until the late 2010s, the Detroit show was packed with global debuts, including some that were genuinely exciting. There was so much to talk about that publications, including The Drive, would send entire teams to Detroit to cover the event (and enjoy the lovely January weather).

Arguing that CES once again triumphed over Detroit wouldn’t be accurate: the big tech show’s car section was eerily quiet this year. Honda unveiled a pair of electric concepts, BMW presented its new iDrive system, and … that’s about it in terms of big announcements from car brands.

It’s not just Detroit that has become a shadow of its former self. The organizers of the Geneva Auto Show were happy to announce that nearly 168,000 people attended last year’s edition of the event. For context, the show welcomed over 200,000 visitors in 1948, when cheap flights from just about anywhere in Europe to Geneva were unheard of. In 2011, about 735,000 visitors trekked to Switzerland to attend the Geneva show.

Can car shows become relevant again? It’s not unthinkable, but it’ll take some heavy lifting. In adapting to the restrictions linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, carmakers realized that they could reach more people (including buyers and members of the media) and hog the spotlight for a day or two by organizing their own unveilings. It’s cheaper than buying a space in a big show, too. Marketing is happy, and the folks in finance are too.

Another point worth mentioning, though it’s more relevant in Europe than in the U.S., is that some of the numerous attempts to cast the car as evil may have worked. In France, for example, print car ads legally need to include warnings such as “use public transportation.” Imagine if your next burrito came with a label that said, “Yo, buy a salad instead.” If cars are bad, why would you attend a show to see thousands of them?

The 2026 edition of the Detroit show, whose dates haven’t been announced yet, will add valuable context to 2025’s attendance figures.

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