What Country Has The Best Nightlife?
The U.S.A., hands-down.
As with many entertainment-based industries, America leads the way in nightlife in terms of resources, consistency, and innovation, and its venues and event planning processes serve as the blueprint for creating similar live entertainment experiences in other metropolises across the world. According to Forbes, in 2014 America’s Top 10 nightclubs alone generated $550 million USD in annual revenues, and its Top 100 nightclubs generated $1.36 billion USD in annual revenues – far outpacing any other country. So, by those numbers alone I’d say that A) nightclubs are more prevalent in this country than in any other country in the world, and B) nightclubs are pretty prevalent in this country in relation to other forms of personal “going out for a night on the town” entertainment.
A nightclub is defined as a live entertainment establishment that is primarily open at nights and primarily plays live or pre-recorded music, for the primary purpose of allowing its patrons to dance, mingle, and socialize with one another. Nightclubs distinguish themselves from bars and lounges by typically having elevated stages where DJs or artists perform and open spaces where patrons can dance. That being said, most nightclubs do have bars serving alcohol surrounding the main dance areas as well as lounge-style couches and tables for patrons to relax and enjoy food/drink service while listening to the music.
There are thousands of nightclubs across the U.S., and every American city of a certain size (say, 50–100K residents) will have at least one nightclub to entertain its locals and visitors. Las Vegas, New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami are the four nightlife capitals of the U.S., if not the entire world. Each of these cities boasts nightlife venue variety numbering in the several hundreds, with new ones popping up every day.
For these top-tier cities, out-of-towners visit specifically to partake in late nights out, and so the party scenes there are pretty crazy on weekends and do not let up much during the week. That being said, as you would expect, during the week the pool of options is smaller, the hotspots are less obvious and always changing, and you’re more apt to be surrounded by locals (who are less likely to be interested in meeting and mingling with tourists). In addition, elite locals in these top-tier markets prefer to go out in the nightlife scene Mon/Tue/Wed to enjoy a higher degree of privacy/exclusivity, as do the local working-class twentysomethings who spend their weekends toiling within the massive service & tourism industries. Going down a level to second-tier cities like Chicago and San Diego, the nightclub scene is lively on weekends but pretty dead during the weekdays.
To get a gauge of how prevalent nightlife is across America, you can use the Discotech app – to browse club and pool party events by specific days of the week, holidays, or dates you’ll be in town. Then, you can even take the next step within the app, using its features to buy tickets, sign up for guest lists, or even reserve tables if you’re feeling super-fancy. The app event info refreshes daily, pulling from various entertainment online resources including the official websites of the clubs themselves, so it’s always current, accurate, and in the know. We are live in the four aforementioned top-tier cities and six other second-tier markets in the U.S., and we work with nearly 200 nightlife venues, including every one of the Top 10 venues mentioned in the Forbes list and 95% of the list’s Top 100.v