Is the Las Vegas Sphere Worth It? 

I am so excited for The Sphere 50 years in the future when the panels aren't getting replaced in a reasonable enough time, and it's a horrible, broken monstrosity.

Incredible that Eddy was crazy enough to go to every single Vegas Sphere in the country

I am being completely honest when i say this, i went to this a few months ago and yes, very steep, insane prices on food/drink and during the show, an elderly woman in front of me was having like a pre seizure or something and people had to shake her out of it and also, when the show ended, a guy right in front of me fell head first two rows down and had to be pulled out. It was absolute chaos lmao

No way that glitchy ass video is actually one of the clips they put on the sphere. That could genuinely kill someone oh my god. I guess no one with epilepsy is allowed to live in Vegas now

As a nevada resident I'd like to point out the fact the same county in Vegas declared a financial emergency stating they couldn't house all of the kids in the city without homes to the point they had to rely on hotel rooms in casinos the exact same week this massive eyesore was unveiled. It was the most dystopian news day for me.

Cyberpunk 2077 being advertised on a giant advertising sphere that can be seen for miles is one of the most cyberpunk things I've ever seen

im a las vegas local and outside of my apartment bedroom window was a direct view of the sphere (i dont live there anymore so i dont mind sharing) but it was so dystopian to me when EVERY TIME I WOULD LOOK OUT MY WINDOW would be this massive orb. when it was under construction it was strikingly similar to the death star. i couldn’t really tell if people were actually invested in the orb on social media or if the algorithm just picked up that i live here. i hate it, especially the emoji guy.

i was recently on a flight to SF, and i was taken by surprised when i was able to spot the sphere from hundreds of miles away in an airplane with not the best visibility. i am sincerely so sorry for everybody in Vegas who have to deal with it daily, bcs i could figure that the sphere is an eyesore and incredibly annoying to deal with, but it never really hits how dystopian an idea it is until you experience the sphere yourself

"we were so blinded, that we didn't want to see any light but our own" said by a big giant sphere of lights. I absolutely love the irony and am saddened by it.

It’s wild to me that they mentioned climate change in their ads considering the amount of CO2 this thing emits and the amount of money they spent on it

The artificial canal opera singer thing looked so awkward for the couple. You’re essentially being paddled down a swimming pool that runs through a mall while a loud guy sings and everyone stares at you.

It reminds me of that Black Mirror episode where the characters are surrounded by screens in their bedrooms and if they look away there's a blaring alarm telling them they need to look back up at the screens

eddy is definitely in his “gets lost in some capitalist monstrosity” era. he’s stared in the soul of the rainforest cafe, jimmy buffet, and now the vegas sphere

as someone who was born and raised here, there are so many aspects to this. when people think “Vegas” they only think of the strip and the entertainment/gambling scene. what they don’t know about is the severely underfunded schools and crippling gentrification of the northern suburbs. nevada is ranked in the bottom five states in education, not even mentioning the increasingly apparent acts of gun violence. and no one does anything. so yes, the sphere is dystopian and the strip is a big billboard, but the cost of that isn’t just paid by the companies buying ads. the community suffers the most. this city feels like a city trying to be a city. people in power don’t care about locals and i wish there was more light brought to this. this video was awesome eddy thank you

The idea of grandparents sending their young grandchildren videos of uncanney-valley-terminator wishing them good sleep is deeply funny to me.

I really like the way this channel does ads, even though I despise ads. The time at the bottom is very nice and I'm much more tolerant of the interruption knowing it's justifying two unwanted U2 tickets.

I love that the first idea that multiple grandparents have when they see an AI robot is "I bet this thing is great at wishing my grandkids goodnight".

The fact that we've gone from people feeling uncertain about creating radio advertisements because people couldn't just turn a page if they didn't like what they saw, to a multi-billion dollar eyesore that literally forces people to witness ads in less than two human lifetimes is.... terrifying.

22:22 "I ❤ beeno" got an actual snort out of me.

2:44 The sheer irony of a Cyberpunk ad being played on the sphere

i am cosmically terrified of the sphere. it evokes a fear in me that i assume can only compare to people gazing upon eldritch beasts and losing their minds

What makes the Sphere feel more dystopian is where it's located. I live in Vegas, which I know a lot of people in the comments are saying but hear me out. When we say Vegas, we mean everywhere around it. Henderson, Summerlin, North Las Vegas, Boulder City, etc. It's a place of millions of people of mostly middle to low class status who deal with terrible inflation in their groceries and gas, constant construction getting in the way of daily travel, a poor functioning school district with a current teacher strike (though apparently they've reached an agreement?), and to top it all off, we have a terrible homelessness and crime problem that is not getting any better dispite awareness and action from multiple organizations. What makes it frustrating to locals is that it has nothing to do with Clark Country (the district Vegas is located in) being underfunded. They have money. The world sees this in the billion dollar epileptic nightmare, and we locals see this in things like our housing problem, where they are constantly building expensive fancy houses yet not doing anything about unaffordable existing homes. Or in our school district where the superintendent keeps getting his salary raised while we are facing a teacher shortage and violence in our classrooms. Yes, I'm aware that the state and local government is not paying for the whole project, but they still decided they'd focus on it before dealling with our other issues. The point is that this project is a dystopia, as also made clear by Eddy's video, because it puts the entertainment of the wealthy, most of whom don't even live in the state, before the welfare of struggling locals. Anyways, great video! Love seeing my home talked about more :)

I saw lots of people actually believe those robots were interacting with them using AI. In reality a human is sitting somewhere and just responding to questions you’ve asked. The robots are just fancy microphones and speakers.

I know this is late, but Eddy's description of the Sphere at the end of the video, reminded so much of the Spiral from Junji Ito's Uzumaki.

As someone who worked on the Strip for over a year while the Sphere was being built, I recall it looking like the Death Star because of all the scaffolding, and I think it looked cooler than the finished design. It was fun and also didn't blind me every time I drove past it at night on my way home from work.

I saw a comment talking about how most Vegas residents won’t really see the sphere and I think the most dystopian part is that it’s true for richer residents living in Summerlin, Henderson and our other big suburbs but our poorest neighborhoods in East Las Vegas, paradise, and spring mountain have constant uninterrupted views of the sphere while at home, work and going just about anywhere. For the wealthy it is a fun addition to the tourist attraction and for the rest of us we look at it while driving over unpaved roads and going to some of the worst schools in the country.

Vegas resident here. My husband is a union pipefitter & after being unemployed for a year after covid, this was the first job site call back home that he got after waiting around, for what seemed like forever. Worked on it for two years. He came home happy everyday & it brought in that good money every week. I loved watching the progress everytime I’d drop him off lunch or whatever. It’s amazing to see it finished. Out of all the shit he’s helped build around town, this one gets me for some reason. I can’t help but get teary eyed every time we pass it up close with our kids pointing excitedly out the windows behind us. I’m biased, I suppose

This was great! You should do smaller cheaper video essay exposing the "Monet/Van Gogh Immersive Experience" $50 to walk through a few rooms with pixelated projected images.

I can already imagine the epic territorial battles that will be held for control of the broken sphere in the apocalyptic future.

As someone who lives in Las Vegas, I feel the need to inform you that we are also the home of the Death Ray (The Vdara), which is a building that is curved in such a way that the reflection of the sun beams into the pool area of another nearby building and has hospitalized multiple people. :) This is not the first time the architect has done this and there are multiple death rays in the world. Welcome to Las Vegas.

Dude that montage at the end had the exact same vibe for me as "That Funny Feeling" by Bo Burnham. I had chills. Great video man!

I hate the outside visuals so much. If it was just a big spherical venue like the one in Burbank, that would be really sick and interesting. The outside is the biggest dystopian ick. The light pollution, the adds, the fact that it obstructs so much of the skyline with adds that constantly change is all so icky

Emphasizing the sphere's demand for attention being necessary for its survival really makes it feel more and more like some Eldritch beast. Something which must live in the collective consciousness to live at all. Big corporations don't even make an effort to pretend that their ideal vision of humanity's future isn't a horrifying dystopian one.

There should be a 2nd sphere there and a huge tower in the middle. Would perfectly symbolize Las Vegas

watching these travel videos is like reading the log of a lighthouse keeper and slowly watching as they go insane, which honestly is great

As someone from Canada who's lived almost exclusively in smaller towns and was wowed by a skyscraper, this feels terrifying and wickedly dystopian

I feel like not nearly enough people talk about light pollution, either. There was a time in 1994 in LA where an earthquake resulted in a huge blackout, so all the lights went out. Residents were so shocked by the "strange sky" (the milky way) they saw during the blackout that a nearby observatory kept on getting calls the week after. Light pollution not only affects the beautiful night sky, but also insects, turtles, birds, fish, reptiles, and other wildlife species, with their behaviours, foraging areas, and breeding cycles, and / or migration routes being disrupted to concerning degrees. I've never seen the night sky in it's pure form, and if the chance passes with the accelerating rate light pollution is going in.. I don't even know. I just wish the 1% fucked off to the next galaxy over or something lmao Edit: why r mfs getting so angry that I wanna see stars in a suburban area 😭😭

If all of Eddy’s subscribers chipped in $1,350 we could construct our own $2.3 Billion sphere 💡

That editing to Moonlight Sonata at the end was en pointe. I didn't notice the first time I watched this, but the music starts way earlier than I thought. That must have taken some work.

I love this thing! It was the highlight of my trip to Vegas last month, got to see it from my hotel room, loved it. I didn’t see a single ad when I was there.

My parents, who live there, and I were discussing this. It wouldn't be a surprise if the company was hemoragging cash just to power the damn thing. That power could be better used for powering Archimedes II or a securitron army

I live in a dark sky city and the sphere honestly sounds like the most horrific dystopian bs I could imagine

You probably won’t see this but I’ve been going through a rough spot in my life recently and your videos have helped a lot. You’re so funny, and the way you react to awkward interactions with people is kind of…inspiring?? I struggle with anxiety and the way you joke about those awkward or embarrassing moments and make them into something you can laugh at has helped me work on overcoming some of my own struggles. Anyways, thank you. I love your videos. Have a lovely day:)

That end compilation and the editing of this video is pure gold!

Eddy is just finding more and more bizarre reasons to travel and I’m all here for it

I can’t imagine how much light pollution the sphere gives off

Thanks. Great video. You answered all my questions and more. Don't ever stop giving that great detail.

When I was a kid about 15 years ago one of the museums in Sweden built a movie theatre like this one. It was a pretty amazing experience with surround video and audio, they also did 3D. They show films about nature and space. Entry of course is more than for the museum but still about $15... The technology museum created a 4D theatre around the same time with moving seats and smells. Sadly that one only lasted for ten years and closed down in 2016 because they couldn't maintain the technology. Cosmonova is going through a big refurb though right now. I should go back and check it out when they are done... Also, the natural history museum that houses Cosmonova is at least as beautiful and draws as much attention without lighting up. It looks like a big castle on the outskirts of the city.

As someone who worked on it, it is crazy that the lights are deliberately underpowered significantly or else the electric internals would melt in months.

That ending was genuinely perfect. Well done Eddie. Beeno would be proud

Brilliant. Informative, well researched, superbly edited, sensationally spoken, and unmistakably funny, as usual. Thank you Eddy.

The end to this video was glorious, I always appreciate your work, Eddie!

Fun fact! There's this underground tunnel (I think it's a waterway, it's right beside a major hotel) that has so many homeless in there, that the residents in it have their own unofficially elected mayor, teachers, fire department, etc.

I really want to see feature length docs produced by you and your team, so entertaining and while the point remains frightening. thank you

I cannot comprehend why there wouldn’t be amazing visuals for the entire concert????? Even an old 3D pipe screen saver would look dope

As a Vegas local, the sphere is nice to look at, but they keep trying to block our view, charge astronomical parking prices and overall discourage “regular” people from attending a show there. So overall it’s a billion dollar eyesore. Not to mention, running an ad on there costs $500k.

I love how your videos stray further and further from the traditional video essay into a sort of artistic short documentary-meets-drama format

I saw your Apple eye goggle pro video before this and I'm happy to hear you mention this concept in both, "will it make an increasing profit every quarter?" Even more than most C-suites, Boards of Directors have a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders to increase the stock price, which requires a constant increase in profit. To expect them to do anything else, like be fair and just to employees and the community, is folly. Wake up! Keep spreading the message, Eddy. sub

Pictures don’t do it justice. The sphere outside in person is wild. No idea why they built it, but I love it.

Saw Postcards from Earth a couple months back and I was kinda blown away by how much I enjoyed it. But you hit the nail on the head, the message of the movie was hilariously conflicting with its venue. I wondered if it was intentional on Aronofsky’s part. Undermine the entire concept.

For the record, The Las Vegas Sphere, even with inflation cost more to construct than The Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Future World, or The World Showcase in Walt Disney World. A stadium with a single resident venue cost more than an entire Disney theme park.

Update from London: after a tenacious campaign from locals and intervention from the mayor the plans for this were blocked. The central government tried to reopen planning permissions but then MSG had walked off in a huff. Good riddance! Vegas is probably the only place on earth one of these is vaguely tenable, the light pollution makes it a no go almost anywhere else. Their proposal was to build it next to the train station in Stratford, a heavily built up area. It would have been about 30m away from residential towers. When residents complained to local planners MSG insultingly offered to buy them blackout curtains...

The montage at the video’s end of overhyped for-profit mass media (celebrity news, youtubers, movies, tv shows) as a comment on how the entertainment sector and its’ benefactors operate was beautiful. I didn’t need the existential crisis but I’ll take it.

advertising a super spooky monster is the *only* good use of the sphere. i can get behind this.

The line "Even after Chrissy went to sleep i found myself fixated on the sphere" sounds like it's straight out of some lovecraftian horror...a sphere from space that showed up and the sheer size and absurdity of it draws people to it

As a person with interest in editing and appropiation found footage cinema, this ending is fantastic

Amazing video. The ending was especially moving, reaching the conclusion artfully.

"When you're really far away, it looks fantastic. But as you get closer, you’re surprised to see that isn’t the case." And in this way, it's the perfect symbol of Las Vegas.

As someone from Vegas it's actually really funny to see the reactions people outside of my social "sphere" have to the sphere because we were all pretty aware of it since it had to be constructed, obviously, so we had so much time to prepare for it actually going live. I didn't realize how jarring it would be for everyone else because it really did feel like it just dropped from the sky if you weren't around that area to see it's construction. A note about the construction: for a long period of time before they put the screens in the outside it looked like a huge golf ball and I would refer to it exclusively as the golf ball during this time

I watched this video yesterday and I truly haven’t been able to stop thinking about how the lobby just gives Future Showcase/Space Mountain energy.

30:00 This montage edit at the end was phenomenal.

The only impressive thing about the sphere to me is the amount of light pollution that thing has to be giving. The fact that you’re seeing ads on your way home has to be way less annoying than the blinding light that changes colour quickly, can’t imagine that’s very safe for people with epilepsy either…

I have not finished the video yet! But I work at a Vegas history museum, and I get asked my opinion or thoughts about the sphere pretty often! Here’s what I have to say: the sphere makes sense for Vegas, from a historical standpoint. If you lay out all of history in Vegas, they’ve always been about big flashy lights. It’s an integral part of our city’s history and identity. They should not have spent public money on the sphere- lets get that straight. But Vegas has always been about the next big flashy attention grabbing thing. Always has been. Always will be. It’s just a matter of time before The Sphere is out, and something new and crazier comes along. I’ve always referred to the Sphere as the super villain orb, because it’s not gonna be used for any good. But stuff like this is standard protocol for Vegas. Stuff meant to pick through your wallet and catch your attention before moving on to the next big bright thing. It’s just with technology now those crazy things are getting dystopian.

I've been binging your videos for the past two hours. Quality stuff!

That ending was great. Love the commentary in your videos

I have a planetarium about 30 minutes from where I live that while smaller has the same type of screen. They show mostly documentaries for around 25$ for adults which seems like a much better value to me. It has been around for quite a long time so this type of screen isn’t really anything new. I think the reason why the sphere is so expensive is probably because the power bill is enormous. Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if the sphere uses more power than North Korea does.

the last minute has me in tears, it can be so easy to accept so much of what is happening around us and just go along but it really is so important to face it head on and not fall victim to it

I'm so glad the algorithm finally decided to present your channel to me. Thanks!

Honestly its on brand. Every building in Vegas is a giant billboard. I grew up there and it used to not be so bad but when I visit now all the buildings have advertisements all over them.

Imagine one day all buildings are LED screens with ads. I hate it here 🌍

I wish a bunch of artists could get control of the sphere for some days and just do some persistent and cool artworks on it that could linger a bit

"I got all excited to see a sphere, and nothing happened... I was blue-sphered." never been a fan or delved into Eddy's videos but I will be doing so today thanks exclusively to this joke

The songs in the background are everything 😭😭 jortstorm for this video is amazing

i feel like eddy’s the only youtuber who truly understands how broke we are lol. the whole thing about how you’re sure someone who’s a U2 fan would love to have those tickets hit hard with me. not cause i like U2. but because if i DID i couldn’t even contemplate paying for something like this. it somehow costs me money even thinking about it

Just want to point out that technically the Rockettes are not a third-party ad: they and Radio City Music Hall are owned by MSG Group, which also owns The Sphere.

Them wanting to build one of these in London is insane to me considering the economy and living costs aren’t in a good spot whatsoever Hey more and more people may be living on the streets but at least London has a cool sphere!

omg this was insane, that edit at the wowza geez man

if you wrote a novel about something like this sphere, critics would be like this metaphor is too heavy handed. absolutely wild.

Okay but older people asking the robots to wish their grandkids goodnight is actually pretty cute, as horrifying those robots are and the nightmares they would inflict be

I’ve just stumbled onto ur channel. Genius!!

It only demands your attention if you go to the Vegas strip. That’s the difference that some people are neglecting to mention. It’s like the billboards in Times Square. They work in those places and would be completely unacceptable most other places.

The facial recognition thing is actually insane. The guy who owns this uses facial recognition to keep people he doesn’t like out of the venues he owns 😭😭 Im pretty sure I listened to a podcast about him once and he was just like a bad guy in general

Shout out to Eddy for going to the Sphere and declaring it as a work expense. living the dream

Well done with the deep take on close encounters!😂 That orb is truly nuts.

That final montage was a wonderful climax to the video

also the amount of light pollution this ONE structure creates makes a WHOLE WORLD WIDE SERIES of structures terrifying to me. there are so few untouched night skies left and we are barreling towards completely elimination/illumination

$300+ in "processing fees" is absolutely insane lmfao

Ending montage was the beginning of a really remarkable train of thought. A very intelligent use of medium. Derailed from a simple joke.

24:07 the blade runner 2045 reference actually goes hard

I got to go to the Sphere to see the movie because my grandma lives right next to Vegas and she invited my family to go with her. In general, the whole experience was incredibly weird. My grandma is disabled, so she had to sit in the handicap area, and we were allowed able to sit in the section with her (I believe the price was about $50-60 per ticket, I don't know if that was because it was the handicap seating or just because of when we went). When my mom called the place, she specifically asked if the handicap seating had the haptic seats (meaning the seats move/vibrate in time with the movie), to which the staff confirmed they did. This is important later. First, parking was a nightmare and the sidewalks that lead to the Sphere are horrible. Most of them didn't even have the sloped areas for people in wheelchairs and scooters to get down, and my grandma got stuck multiple times and it even got to the point where we had to walk in the road. When getting our ticket info, we were told there was going to be a specific, handicap entrance for us. However, when arriving there, everyone was forced to shuffle through the main doors, and, as you saw, the only way into the area with the robots was by an escalator. So my family had to be shuffled through to a back storage room with one staff member to wait for an elevator that was SO slow, and pretty small considering our group size. Eventually we got through and it was fine (though we didn't get to spend much time in the robot room because of how slow it was), but when we were taken to our seats, the handicap "seating" was actually just a small ledge type thing that was right in front of the entrance with a rail, and our seats were just fold out chairs. And Eddy was right, the steps were incredibly steep, there was no way my grandma could have even gotten up/down one step. I just found it weird and very disheartening how it was impossible for someone disabled to get the full experience, and it was pretty disappointing. (Also food was incredibly expensive. We spent like $200 on 2 tiny pizzas, 2 fries and 2 sodas.)