What the study found
Clubcommission Berlin published Clubkultur Berlin 2026 on August 7, its first wide survey of club operators and promoters since 2019, produced for the city's Senate Department for Economic Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises. Thirty-nine percent of respondents closed the 2025 business year at a loss, against 21 percent in 2017; 61 percent at least broke even, down from 79.
The revenue structure has inverted. Admission now accounts for 59 percent of income and food and drink for 20 percent, where in 2017 the same two figures were 21 and 60. Forty-five percent of respondents turn over less than 100,000 euros a year, up from 16 percent, while 7 percent clear more than 2 million. Eighty-three percent reported rooms at least half full.
The interesting bit
A full room that loses money is an economic problem rather than a cultural one. People are still turning up; they are drinking far less, and the bar margin that quietly paid for bookings, sound and staff has gone with them. The door now has to carry costs it was never designed to carry.
The closure count is the part most coverage skips: at least 24 venues have shut since 2020 and roughly 25 have opened. The scene is not disappearing so much as being replaced by smaller rooms on thinner margins—which changes who can still afford to book an artist nobody has heard of yet.