After a banner 2024, reports of softer visitation and spend in mid-2025 (outside marquee weekends) have fed the “Vegas is empty” meme, a warning sign for a city built on momentum. Yet the engine room still hums: the destination’s digital heat holds with a #13 Google Trends finish, and the Las Vegas Convention Center (#14) continues to anchor a robust calendar even when leisure ebbs.
The skyline is popping off, too. The 660-foot Hard Rock Guitar tower is rising on the former Mirage site toward a 2027 debut, while the 33,000-seat climate-smart MLB ballpark for the A’s on the Strip, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, broke ground in June 2025 and will feature an 18,000-square-foot Jumbotron, the league’s biggest. Brightline West’s high-speed rail broke ground, targeting a two-hour L.A. to Vegas run – half the time of a car ride – by 2028, in time for the Olympics. Underground, the permitted Vegas Loop network crawls toward an eventual 68 miles of tunnels linking the airport, Strip, downtown and UNLV. Nightlife (ranked #43) stays loud where it counts: headliner residencies, dayclubs and the Sphere’s spectacle continue to mint viral moments, supporting the city’s #40 Theaters & Concerts standing. In Vegas, reality bites, but not too hard: British-born Real Housewives star Lisa Vanderpump has joined forces with Caesar’s to transform the Cromwell into the first-ever Vanderpump.