Texas bars sold $881 million of alcohol in July. The World Cup made Arlington the story.
By Bobby Stark
July 2026 mixed-beverage receipts, reported to the Texas Comptroller. TABC data runs about two months behind; July is the most recent complete month.
Texas bars, restaurants, hotels and venues reported $881,270,768 in mixed-beverage sales for July 2026. That's up 10.2% from July 2025 ($799.6 million) and down 3.5% from June, which is the normal summer shape — June is the bigger month most years.
20,524 permit holders reported sales above zero, up from 19,612 a year ago.
The statewide number is solid. The local number that matters is Arlington.
Arlington: +67% in one month
Arlington reported $21.9 million in July, up $8.8 million from July 2025. No other city in the top 10 grew faster than 17.5%. Arlington grew 67%.
The reason is on the calendar. AT&T Stadium hosted three FIFA World Cup matches in July — a Round of 32 on July 3, a Round of 16 on July 6, and a semifinal on July 14 — on top of the five group-stage matches it hosted in June. The receipts followed the crowds:
| Venue | July 2026 | Note |
|---|---|---|
| AT&T Stadium | $4,406,941 | #1 in Texas. Reported $49,355 in July 2025 — no events, no sales. |
| Globe Life Field | $4,306,621 | #2. Up 27% year over year. |
| The Backyard at Texas Live! | $3,387,670 | #3. Up 175% — the single biggest dollar gain in the state. |
Three venues on one entertainment district, $12.1 million between them, more than half of Arlington's total for the month. AT&T Stadium alone went from $49,355 to $4.4 million — roughly 89 times its July 2025 receipts. It doesn't appear on the gainers list below only because it missed the $50,000 eligibility floor by $645.
Houston hosted matches at NRG Stadium the same month, and the pattern shows up there too, though spread across more venues: George R. Brown Convention Center went from $72,889 in July 2025 to $1,049,278, Pitch 25 in EaDo nearly quadrupled to $739,682, and Shell Energy Stadium rose 70% to $718,141.
The market got wider, not just bigger
The cleanest way to read a month like this is to count how many venues cleared each threshold — that's breadth, not just a few giants having a good month.
| Monthly sales | July 2026 | July 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1 million or more | 16 | 10 | +60% |
| $500K or more | 69 | 47 | +47% |
| $250K or more | 345 | 287 | +20% |
| $100K or more | 1,945 | 1,770 | +10% |
Growth at every tier, concentrated at the top. The number of Texas venues doing a million dollars in a month went from 10 to 16.
Top 10 venues, July 2026
| # | Venue | City | July 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AT&T Stadium | Arlington | $4,406,941 |
| 2 | Globe Life Field | Arlington | $4,306,621 |
| 3 | The Backyard at Texas Live! | Arlington | $3,387,670 |
| 4 | Minute Maid Park Concessions | Houston | $2,655,978 |
| 5 | Hilton Anatole | Dallas | $2,005,189 |
| 6 | Gaylord Texan | Grapevine | $1,864,386 |
| 7 | JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country | San Antonio | $1,764,546 |
| 8 | Alamodome | San Antonio | $1,750,102 |
| 9 | Dos Equis Pavilion | Dallas | $1,520,835 |
| 10 | Kalahari Resorts Texas | Round Rock | $1,424,599 |
Seven of the ten were also top-10 in July 2025. The three newcomers — AT&T Stadium, Hilton Anatole, Alamodome — are all event-driven.
Top cities
| # | City | July 2026 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Houston | $125,492,773 | +7.5% |
| 2 | Dallas | $100,488,178 | +15.5% |
| 3 | Austin | $89,738,208 | +7.8% |
| 4 | San Antonio | $69,613,869 | +6.5% |
| 5 | Fort Worth | $34,383,060 | +7.5% |
| 6 | Arlington | $21,929,721 | +67.1% |
| 7 | El Paso | $19,970,202 | +5.5% |
| 8 | Plano | $13,429,255 | +3.2% |
| 9 | Grapevine | $11,275,730 | +3.7% |
| 10 | Frisco | $11,240,379 | +17.0% |
Dallas crossed $100 million in a month. Frisco's 17% is the quiet one on this list — no stadium story, just growth.
Top counties
| # | County | July 2026 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harris | $160,017,343 | +7.5% |
| 2 | Dallas | $123,254,068 | +13.1% |
| 3 | Travis | $93,977,658 | +8.2% |
| 4 | Tarrant | $87,701,952 | +17.0% |
| 5 | Bexar | $73,711,950 | +6.4% |
| 6 | Collin | $35,988,477 | +8.9% |
| 7 | Denton | $23,362,258 | +11.5% |
| 8 | El Paso | $20,980,950 | +5.3% |
| 9 | Montgomery | $20,140,466 | +9.7% |
| 10 | Galveston | $16,780,403 | +8.2% |
Tarrant's 17% is Arlington.
Biggest gainers
Venues that reported at least $50,000 in July 2025, ranked by dollar increase:
| # | Venue | City | July 2025 | July 2026 | Gain |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Backyard at Texas Live! | Arlington | $1,233,343 | $3,387,670 | +$2,154,327 |
| 2 | Hilton Anatole | Dallas | $817,196 | $2,005,189 | +$1,187,993 |
| 3 | Alamodome | San Antonio | $704,389 | $1,750,102 | +$1,045,713 |
| 4 | George R. Brown Convention Center | Houston | $72,889 | $1,049,278 | +$976,389 |
| 5 | Globe Life Field | Arlington | $3,390,452 | $4,306,621 | +$916,169 |
| 6 | Casablanca | Dallas | $167,813 | $774,474 | +$606,661 |
| 7 | Aramark at AT&T Center | San Antonio | $94,037 | $646,609 | +$552,572 |
| 8 | Pitch 25 | Houston | $188,826 | $739,682 | +$550,856 |
| 9 | Dos Equis Pavilion | Dallas | $1,023,740 | $1,520,835 | +$497,095 |
| 10 | American Airlines Center | Dallas | $112,691 | $527,494 | +$414,803 |
| 11 | The Dive | Dallas | $259,089 | $664,372 | +$405,283 |
| 12 | Happiest Hour | Dallas | $268,754 | $672,669 | +$403,915 |
| 13 | The Funky Door Bistro & Wine Bar | Lubbock | $92,411 | $395,477 | +$303,066 |
| 14 | Shell Energy Stadium | Houston | $421,621 | $718,141 | +$296,520 |
| 15 | The Backyard | Dallas | $101,459 | $396,782 | +$295,323 |
Eight of fifteen are stadiums, arenas, convention centers or the bars next to them. The non-event names worth noticing: Casablanca and The Dive in Dallas, and The Funky Door in Lubbock, which quadrupled.
New this year, already doing $50K a month
Permits that reported for the first time in 2026 and cleared $50,000 in July. Chains opening new locations count — a new Uchi is a new bar.
| # | Venue | City | First month | July 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | De Nada Taco | Austin | Jan 2026 | $547,071 |
| 2 | The Lobby | Austin | May 2026 | $352,621 |
| 3 | BoomerJack's Grill and Bar | Mansfield | Jan 2026 | $338,996 |
| 4 | Palladino's Steak & Seafood | Dallas | May 2026 | $289,065 |
| 5 | 80 Proof | Frisco | Apr 2026 | $266,519 |
| 6 | The Deep Ellum | Dallas | Apr 2026 | $265,385 |
| 7 | North Italia | Katy | Mar 2026 | $263,187 |
| 8 | Control Room | Dallas | Jun 2026 | $217,651 |
| 9 | Kirkwood | Houston | Feb 2026 | $214,342 |
| 10 | Howdy Honey | El Paso | Feb 2026 | $205,509 |
| 11 | 80 Proof | Round Rock | Apr 2026 | $203,986 |
| 12 | Uchi | Dallas | Feb 2026 | $200,536 |
| 13 | Tupps Brewery | McKinney | Jan 2026 | $192,975 |
| 14 | Tannahill Tavern | Fort Worth | Apr 2026 | $192,948 |
| 15 | The Lucky Duck | Austin | May 2026 | $188,456 |
De Nada Taco opened in January and did $547,000 in July. That's a top-100 number statewide, six months in.
The other side of the ledger
Growth of 10% doesn't mean everyone grew. Among venues that did at least $50,000 in July 2025, 598 were down more than 25% this July, representing $43.4 million in lost monthly receipts. We don't name them — a one-month drop at a small business can be a remodel, an ownership change, or a bad month, and it isn't ours to characterize.
Separately, 393 venues that reported at least $25,000 in July 2025 have reported nothing since April. They represented $22.8 million in July 2025 receipts. TABC data shows filing gaps, not confirmed closures, so we call them what the data calls them: quiet. (We count these by location, not by permit number — TABC renumbers hundreds of licenses a year, and a venue that changed permit numbers didn't go anywhere.)
About the numbers
Every figure here is gross mixed-beverage receipts as reported to the Texas Comptroller — liquor, beer and wine sold at permitted on-premise venues. It isn't total restaurant revenue and it isn't profit. It's the alcohol.
Venues report on a lag, and the Comptroller publishes on a lag, so July is the most recent complete month we'll stand behind. Every venue, city and county above links to its live page, where you can see the full monthly history back to 2007.
Source: Texas Comptroller mixed-beverage gross receipts, July 2026. Figures are complete as of September 10, 2026.