KOTA: Sturgis Rally vehicle traffic down nearly 6% in first three days, SDDOT says

The South Dakota Department of Transportation recorded 168,482 vehicles entering Sturgis during the first three official days of this year’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally — Friday through Sunday — a decrease of 5.8% from the same period last year.

The DOT monitors vehicle traffic at nine locations coming into Sturgis. The three-day total is also down 0.9% from the five-year average.

Saturday was the busiest day.

Saturday was the highest-traffic day of the rally so far, with 58,519 vehicles entering Sturgis. That figure is up 2.5% from the five-year average for the first Saturday of the rally.

Last year’s rally recorded a total of more than 537,000 vehicles entering Sturgis over the full 10-day event. The all-time high on record in this data set was 747,000 vehicles in 2015, during the 75th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

Watch the KOTA Territory news clip here: https://www.kotatv.com/2026/08/12/sturgis-rally-vehicle-traffic-down-nearly-6-first-three-days-sddot-says/