TFBOYS 7th anniversary concert is held online on August 22 in 2020. Photo: Courtesty of NetEase

The decennial concert of  popular Chinese idol group The Fighting Boys (TFBOYS), has garnered tremendous attention offline and online as huge numbers of fans flocked to their concert in Xi'an, causing a ticket buying frenzy, hot selling merchandise and fully booked hotels.

Consisting of three members: Wang Junkai (Karry Wang), Yi Yangqianxi (Jackson Yee) and Wang Yuan (Roy Wang), TFBOYS played their 10-year anniversary concert on Sunday evening as the group debuted on August 6 in 2013 when the members were at the ages of 12 or 13 years old. Within a year, the group became one of the most popular artists in China with their hit song "Manual of Youth".

For many fans, the concert is a reminiscence of their youth, and perhaps the last group performance by the three young idols. 

On China's leading online ticketing platform for live events Damai, the tickets are divided into six tiers, ranging from 580 yuan ($81) to 2,013 yuan, and there have been more than 6.89 million people expressing a desire to attend the concert as of Sunday. The first batch of over 33,000 tickets was snapped up within several seconds when they were put on sale on July 24.

Xi'an almost became the "TFBOYS theme city" where numerous pieces of TFBOYS posters were pasted in subways, bus stops and shopping centers. Video clips on social media showed a number of crazy stans rushing through the security checkpoint at the concert venue after the ticket check opening causing a temporary loss of control in the security process.

Fans could also watch the concert online with one-year validity period after buying online tickets at 39 yuan or 99 yuan on China's leading online video site Youku. As of Sunday afternoon, more than 1.56 million people had made ticket reservations.

When the concert started at 19:50 on Sunday with TFBOYS' signature song "Manual of Youth," TFBOYS-related hashtags almost occupied the trending topics list on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo.

Besides the tickets, TFBOYS 10 years' anniversary merchandise and activities were hot items, including support T-shirts, shoes, shorts, scarves, bucket hats, mini fans and notepads with prices ranging from 30 to 558 yuan. Currently, the best-selling item is TFBOYS' support T-shirt priced at 198 yuan, whose sales alone can earn about 200,000 yuan per month.

The influx of TFBOYS fans booked out hotels in the city of Xi'an. 

On the online travel booking platform Feizhu, hotel bookings in Xi'an from Friday to Saturday have increased nearly 50 times compared to the same period in 2022. The advance bookings for accommodation have increased by over 30 times from Friday to Sunday compared to the same period in 2022, with over 70 percent of bookings made by users under the age of 30, according to Chinese delivery giant Meituan. 

Budget hotels in Xi'an, which were located around two to three kilometers away from the concert venue and usually cost only 100 to 200 yuan per day, were being priced at 400 to 500 yuan a day.

The concert ignited entire city, generating economic and tourism momentum.

After "King of Mandopop" Jay Chou held tour concerts in the city of Haikou from June 29 to July 2, the city's culture and tourism authority said the concerts brought 976 million yuan in tourist spending to the local economy during the four days, attracting audience of over 150,000 people with more than 90,000 visitors coming from other cities.

According to China Association of Performing Arts, entertainment and large-event revenue from performances reached nearly 16.8 billion yuan in the first half of 2023, an increase of 673.49 percent compared to the same period last year. The number of shows including large-scale concerts and music festivals has reached 506, generating box office revenue of about 2.5 billion yuan with about 5.5 million attendees.