The Las Vegas Sphere is actually made up of a bunch of tiny lights
Tayfun Coskun/Getty Images & @CasinoCompWallet/TikTok
The MSG Sphere in Las Vegas lights up the skyline, but the screen looks a lot different up close.
The Sphere is made up of over one million LED lights covering the 336 ft tall, 516 ft wide dome.
But the individual lights are spaced out, and only appear as a uniform screen when viewed from further away.
The new MSG Sphere has been lighting up the Las Vegas skyline and garnering internet hype after U2 gave an opening performance at the already iconic venue. But did you know that up close, the massive screen on the outside of the Sphere doesn’t look like a screen at all?
Sphere is known for displaying attention-grabbing images on its orb-shaped surface. It’s transformed into an eyeball, a jack-o-lantern, and a massive emoji. It’s also been used to promote franchises like “Dancing with the Stars.”
But like any screen, the surface of the Sphere is comprised of smaller pixels that appear uniform when viewed at a distance. The Sphere’s, however, are spaced out quite a bit — to the point that you wouldn’t really be able to see the overall effect when standing a few feet away.
TikTok user @CasinoCompWallet gave an up-close look at the exterior of Sphere and the individual LED lights that change in color and act as pixels to create the giant screen. The video quickly went viral, garnering 3.6 million views and thousands of comments and shares.
The TikToker describes them as looking like a bunch of hockey pucks. There are 1.2 million lights on Sphere, according to KXAS-TV, making it the world’s largest video screen.
Inside the Sphere is an entirely different screen, one with pixels that are much more tightly knit since the viewing distance is intended for an audience sitting far closer.
Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Bram van den Berg of U2 perform during U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere on September 30, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Live Nation
In total, the inside of the Sphere is made up of 160,000 square feet of screens, according to The Hollywood Reporter, formed in a dome-shape, like an IMAX Dome theatre from the future. It’s 336 feet tall and 516 feet wide.
On Friday, U2 performed a concert at Sphere, the first act to do so. The concert attracted 18,000 attendees and was accompanied by immersive visuals that enveloped the venue. U2 Sphere show tickets are already selling out or commanding price tags from the mid-to-high hundreds of dollars to even $1,000-plus territory.
The Sphere apparently cost a reported $2.3 billion to build. It also has shows that aren’t concerts, such as the Sphere Experience, which is more modestly priced at between $50-$250.