The final attendance count from the 82nd Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which ended its 10-day run on Sunday, was 497,835 – based on vehicle counts by the South Dakota Dept of Transportation at 9 locations entering Sturgis.
The total beats the average for the previous 5 years by 5,300 or 1.1%, but is down 53,000 from last year, which had the second-highest visitor count in 20 years.
The first 5 days of this year’s Rally each topped the 5-year average while the last 5 days each fell short.
The count for the first 5 days was 300,386 – almost 16,000 higher the 5-year average – but the last 5 days totaled just 197,449 compared to the average of about 207,000.
This year’s biggest day was the first Saturday at 62,199 while the smallest was the last day with only 20,331.
By the way, the Sturgis Public Works Department says the day-after trash load was down about 50 tons this year, bringing the 10-day total to about 410 tons of additional garbage.
Traffic counts at nine locations entering Sturgis for the 2022 Rally are as follows:
2022 – 10 Day Total: 497,835 Vehicles
- Up 1.1% from the previous five-year average
Previous 5-Year Average: 492,535 Vehicles
Friday, Aug. 5: 56,855 entering
- Up 11.4% from the previous five-year average
Saturday, Aug. 6: 62,199 entering
- Up 5% from the previous five-year average
Sunday, Aug. 7: 60,672 entering
- Up 6.8% from the previous five-year average
Monday, Aug. 8: 62,050 entering
- Up 3.3% from the previous five-year average
Tuesday, Aug. 9: 58,610 entering
- Up 1.6% from the previous five-year average
Wednesday, Aug. 10: 54,599 entering
- Down 1.9% from the previous five-year average
Thursday, Aug. 11: 45,356 entering
- Down 11.7% from the previous five-year average
Friday, Aug. 12: 44,246 entering
- Down 1.3% from the previous five-year average
Saturday, Aug. 13: 32,917 entering
- Down 6.3% from the previous five-year average
Sunday, Aug. 14: 20,331 entering
- Down 2.1% from the previous five-year average