SerpApi.Org
Has America been escaping to the past? Can you blame us?
From the resurgence of vinyl to a renewed appetite for retro arcades and thrifted fashion, nostalgia has become big business across the U.S. — and recent data suggests some cities are leaning into the trend far more than others.
New research from Betway shows the American cities most gripped by that wonderful feeling of nostalgia right now, ranking the country's biggest urban landscapes on everything from record store counts to searches for "vintage clothing."
The study ranked 15 major U.S. cities on a weighted "nostalgia score" built from record store and arcade counts, retro diner ratings and vintage-clothing search data to produce a final score out of 100.
Were you able to guess No. 1? Los Angeles nabbed the top spot, believe it or not. Here are some key findings:
- LA tops the table with the 240 vinyl record sellers and the highest overall weighted score.
- New York City takes second place, generating more vintage-clothing searches than anywhere else in the country (48,350) but a lower per-capita rate keeps it just behind LA.
- Chicago rounds out the podium in third, helped by a 4.6-star average rating for its retro diners and the second-highest vintage-clothing search volume in the study.
- Minneapolis ranks 12th overall but posts the highest vintage clothing searches per capita (19,300) of any city on the list — a sign nostalgia runs deeper there than the headline ranking suggests.
'A Genuine Cultural Movement'
LA was also boosted by its 76 arcades, plus the sheer quantity of vintage-clothing searches that topped 21,800 — reflecting a fashion scene that continues to look backwards for inspiration as much as forwards.
"Los Angeles and New York City lead the way, but it's cities like Minneapolis that show nostalgia isn't just about the biggest metros — it's a genuine cultural movement in smaller markets too," said a Betway spokesperson in a statement.
The complete study can be found here.
