What Happened To The Sphere?

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]The Vegas sphere. Remember that? It's currently in Las Vegas and it's a huge ball. If you were to do a movie about Las Vegas, which I don't really do that anymore. There aren't as many movies where here's a big gambling movie, but if you were to depict a film in Las Vegas, this ball is a part of the skyline. So, last year I did this video called The Death of the Vegas Sphere where I delve into the Vegas sphere. I delve into like the sheer amount of money that they lose every year and being like, I don't think this is sustainable. This doesn't really make sense financially for this to keep going. Today, I thought it would be interesting to like do a little update since it's been a year. Is this fear still bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars? Are the ads still disturbing the residents of Las Vegas? And what's been going on there in general? What's going on with Sphere? Now, one thing that's been going on is the is the Wizard of Oz show.

[00:00:57]Listen, I understand if how if you're a family and you're going there, you're like, "This is an immersive sphere experience." But visually, like maybe it's because I'm not there and I'm not immersed. So, you can you can take a lot of my opinions with with a grain of salt with a tiny little grain of salt that says on it this guy is not there and he's not immersed in the sphere. But, like, if we look at some more visuals, it it looks quite it looks quite bad.

[00:01:21]There's this really incredible video by Be Kindre Rewind on YouTube about the Wizard of Oz sphere experience. And what you can kind of really take away from it is while the original Wizard of Oz, everything is is so curated, it's so intentional. She mentions in the video this sort of like fantastical landscapes that exist in the background. This is like a sort of like a fairy tale world.

[00:01:41]And then if you we're talking the sphere uh Wizard of Oz >> surely they also used pictures of real mountains to inform >> you're seeing like just a just a tree.

[00:01:51]Look at this just the big normal mountain >> mountains. The trees are trees.

[00:01:55]>> It's like we're looking at a like a just a Google street view. There's also criticism over use of AI.

[00:02:01]>> So for example, oh I really want to see Dorothy with her shoes on at this frame but I don't. Using these generative AI techniques, I can now show the shoes in a future one that we cannot see her feet.

[00:02:12]>> Ah, I mean, be kind rewinds video goes over all of this, but in general, just this idea of like we took the Wizard of Oz and we expanded it beyond the frame to me feels like so so needless, so lame. The Wizard of Oz was shot in a specific frame uh intentionally, right?

[00:02:29]you're like the goal is to use composition to create a very specific visual, but you know, it seems like this is still a very successful thing. Uh people have given it 4.6 stars. So, um they're going to keep showing it. I could have whatever opinions I have, but they're going to keep showing it. So, then now let's talk about the residencies happening. So, in my last video, I I I'm trying to remember who were the residencies from that video. It was the Eagles. I remember the Eagles.

[00:02:56]And there was another band. And everyone's average age in those bands was like 60 I or I think like minimum age. I think partly because creating those visuals creating the visuals for the sphere takes so much time and then you kind of so to try and kind of make that money back you really need a quite a long residency often just every everything to do with the sphere is so [ __ ] expensive. So now we have bands like the Backstreet Boys doing it. We have Metallica doing it which again I mean not necessarily 60 but follow follows kind of the same pattern of like it's bands at a way later stage of their career. Uh they have they have the ability to stay trapped in the sphere for a while to an extent that maybe pays off the amount that was spent to produce these shows. And then what what was I talking about? Sorry I got I just got a little distracted. I've just been it just smells so good in here. Like a nice fresh smell. It must be thanks to this Azuna air freshener I got. This changed every This right here changed everything for me. Up until now, I've had these uh sprays or like plug-in scent things in my bathroom. They they run out quickly. I start panicking. I start screaming. I start crying. I'm like, I got and now I'm left with all this goddamn plastic. What am I supposed to do? But thanks to Azuna who are sponsoring this. Every time I walk into my bathroom, I get to smell something so nice that lasts up to 90 days and is a lot more sustainable. And what's so nice is that instead of getting something that is just the like the existing bad smell like let's say after you cook or something like that instead of getting that plus fragrance on top of that I'm walking around and I'm smelling something so so nice and fresh a lot more neutral I guess they also have a spray that you can use for quick fixes spray spray this thing smells so fresh at the other day I had thousands of orange juice vendors knocking out my door Knock knock knock. Can we please buy some of your oranges? And I was like, guys, I'm sorry. It's Asuna's simply citrus smell.

[00:04:57]That's what you've been smelling. Then they started crying and then I just shut the door on their face. If you want to buy something like this that's plant-based, focuses more on reducing odors instead of just masking them, you can scan the the QR code right here or click on the link in the description below. Thank you Ozuna for sponsoring this video. The Backstreet Boys already did a show. This is from this account right here. They already did a show in the sphere. Let's see these visuals.

[00:05:22]They did that last year.

[00:05:26]>> All right. All right. Copyrighted music.

[00:05:28]Ain't nothing but a hike.

[00:05:32]Ain't nothing but WA. Look at that.

[00:05:36]They're going Where are they being shipped off to? It's interesting, right?

[00:05:39]Cuz they're so tiny. But I guess like you have all these like other visuals to look at now. But often, you know, often in a show the musician, you'd be far enough away where the musician looks really tiny, but then you have in these big arena shows, you have like, you know, a screen showing their face. But then in the sphere, that would be terrifying if you showed a face that big. The ads they put on the sphere for the Metallica shows looked uh absolutely terrifying. This from this account right here.

[00:06:05]Uh-oh, they're playing Enter Sandman.

[00:06:07]But look at that. I mean, it's very scary.

[00:06:12]You're sitting there in your hotel looking at looking out the window and you're like, "This is so scary. Is the sphere on fire?" I think I like that ad.

[00:06:19]I think I like how menacing it is. You know, the sphere has been menacing from the beginning. I I think acknowledging that is a good idea. Let's look at another video. Let's look. Wa! Oh my god. Me. I think having like a storm like that like like flashing lights, you know? That's from this account right here. Flashing lights as you're driving.

[00:06:40]I I really don't think that that should h that should be allowed. I'm assuming the sphere serves as as enough of a distraction as it is. So I really think just don't don't flash lights at people.

[00:06:50]They're driving. So reportedly the sphere is is continuing to lose money.

[00:06:55]Last year 2025 the sphere has recorded an annual operating loss of over $200 million. [ __ ] we. But apparently this this is unbelievable news. If you're a spearhead, any spearheads out there, if you're a spearhead as fed as we call you behind your back, there are some good news that I will be revealing a bit later. I guess I guess good news. There's a quite a lot of reasons as to why the sphere is probably losing money. I calculate the operating costs in that last video. Uh they're ginormous. They're gigantic.

[00:07:31]It's so hard to turn a profit on something like this. So that's obviously a big reason. Um, another big reason is the fact that tourism in Vegas in general is is down. It's reported that in 2025 there were 11% less tourists in Vegas than the previous year with the hotels themselves even having lower percentages. So you know obviously if it affects Vegas as a whole, it affects the sphere. With that said, and that's that's the fact for the feds out there that I said I'll let you know about. Uh, in 2025, in Q4, the last quarter of the year, the sphere reported an income. I love saying a sentence like that. The sphere reported an income. The ominous blob reported an income of 28.9 million.

[00:08:10]So, it might be that they're starting to report a profit. It is Q4, which is what most thing like things like that make more money in Q4. So, it could be indicative of a of a better future for the sphere. Um, it could just it could just be a thing of that quarter specifically, but they did finally make a profit. So, let's Good job, Sphere. Just for like just so you understand how how much this thing can bleed money in 2024 around when we made that video, the Sphere has grossed $420 million from ticket sales. Just from ticket sales, they also have advertising and then they lost money.

[00:08:49]$420 million in ticket sales is the highest any venue has grossed annually ever. It just costs just stupid amounts to operate. It's it doesn't make any [ __ ] sense. So because of that, because of the bleeding money thing, it it's becoming easier and easier for just whatever ad to be put on the sphere.

[00:09:09]Just like ah, you know, let's put something there. They're they're offering us money. Uh prediction market, I'm not saying the name of the website.

[00:09:17]There was one of those websites uh which reportedly they're like they they spent $450,000 on their placement but only $1 on the design. That's that makes me feel stupid repeating that cuz that's clearly like that's clearly like what they what what they like agreed on in the marketing brief for this whole sphere thing. They didn't spend $1 on the design. They had someone whose job it is to come up with a marketing campaign come up with this.

[00:09:44]The sphere apparently commissioned a video for cat day. Some people say that it's like it was commissioned by some millionaire or something, but it seems like it seems like it was the sphere.

[00:09:53]The perfect way to celebrate International Cat Day.

[00:09:59]I can't. Dude, this just seems so distracting if you're driving.

[00:10:04]Yeah. All right.

[00:10:07]Yeah, it's funny cats, you know. It's from this account. Let's mute the music.

[00:10:11]that that's I again that's that's so bad for the driving thing. That's just insane. Okay. Well, I mean it's funny cats, you know. I I don't want to I don't want to be that sort of guy. I don't want to be anti-funny cats. I think I said something in the last video about how they almost built a sphere in London, but then they didn't. They ended up not. But apparently, a new sphere is on its way, and it's it's an Abu Dhabi. So, there's going to be another sphere.

[00:10:41]This is Okay. Well, will we be seeing more spheres pop up? I don't know, man.

[00:10:47]I don't know. I don't know if this is going to I don't know. I wonder what happens if they if they do end up going bankrupt. What are you What are you doing with that thing? It's so gigantic.

[00:10:58]It takes up such a huge space in the city. Guys, if you want to see more evil Pinley, Evil Pinley forever, make sure to like and subscribe. This summer I'm not doing evil pinly summer. I'm doing a It's the Minions movie is coming out sometime in July. I'm thinking uh of doing a uh a Minions month. Uh so you could try and tell me in the comments if you want that idea to happen. A a month where I do videos related to to the minions. You can tell me if you want that or or or try and deter me from doing that, which might just make me want to do it more. Thank you guys so much for watching. Please subscribe. I'm at 200k. I'll do a video about air, which I don't know what that means. So that's that's for the future to figure to figure that out. Subscribe.

[00:11:45]>> My big big red shoes.

[00:11:49]My big big red shoes.

[00:11:53]My big big red shoes. Yeah.