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The fair's attendance was 104,893, a high for 2025 and the second-best single-day total since the fair was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Sunday's attendance was boosted by a marquee concert lineup. Shaggy, a reggae artist whose hits include "Boombastic" and "It Wasn't Me," drew an estimated 48,000 fairgoers for his evening concert at Suburban Park. It is one of the largest crowds to attend a state fair concert.

At Chevy Court, the Blippi: Join the Band Tour had an estimated 7,000 attendees for the afternoon show. In the evening, En Vogue had a crowd of about 6,500 fans.

Through the first 12 days, the fair's attendance is 847,763. It is expected to surpass the 2024 total (868,745) when the fair ends Monday.

The 2025 fair has featured two days with more than 100,000 attendees — the first time that's happened at the state fair in the post-pandemic era. On Saturday, there were 100,396 fairgoers.

From 2021 through 2024, the fair had two days that topped the 100,000 mark — 103,924 on Sept. 3, 2022, and 108,390 on Sept. 1, 2024.

Although attendance is still an important figure for fair officials, they have emphasized quality over quantity. Part of their mission is to make the fair self-sustaining again after a period where expenses outpaced revenues.

Some of the fair's financial challenges were due to actions that drove up fair attendance, such as free or reduced admission that helped draw more fairgoers.

Over a four-year stretch, from 2016 to 2019, the fair set all-time attendance records and topped 1 million visitors each year. In 2019, the fair had a record 1,329,275 attendees during its 13-day run.

The cancellation of the 2020 fair ended that streak. When the fair returned in 2021, it was an 18-day event — former Gov. Andrew Cuomo wanted a longer run to compete with other state fairs in Minnesota and Texas. But with COVID lingering and the fair recovering from the cancellation, the crowds were smaller. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul directed the fair to end the 18-day experiment and return to a 13-day run in 2022. Attendance rebounded, with 878,110 fairgoers that year. (There were 798,095 over 18 days in 2021.)

The fair nearly topped the 1 million mark in 2023, but finished with 932,699 attendees. Attendance dipped in 2024 to 868,745, but weather was a factor.

The final day of the 2025 fair is Monday. The fair will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.