The 2027 TCS London Marathon ballot has produced a world-record 1,338,544 entries, organisers London Marathon Events confirmed this week after the public ballot closed on 1 May. The figure is the highest ever recorded for any marathon and surpasses the 2026 ballot, itself a world-record 1.05 million, by close to 290,000 applications. The next step for hopeful runners is an outcome email by early July, with the race itself scheduled for Sunday 25 April 2027.
The headline figure is striking enough on its own, but the more interesting line in the announcement is structural: London Marathon Events says it is exploring a one-off two-day format for 2027, in which the field would race across Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 April should permission be granted by the relevant authorities. Ballot entrants would automatically be considered for both days, materially increasing their chances of receiving a place. No final decision has been published, and any change to the route or weekend would need agreement from Transport for London, the Royal Parks and the Metropolitan Police, but the signal is unambiguous: demand has now outgrown the capacity of a single Sunday.
The numbers explain why. London accepted around 56,000 ballot and qualifier entries in 2026, and even accounting for charity and Good for Age places the ballot success rate has dropped below five per cent for the past three editions. The 1.34 million entries for 2027 push the implied success rate well below three per cent on a single-day field. A two-day model would not necessarily double the total field, but it would let organisers separate the elite race, the championship-pace field and the wider mass start, and provide a marketing platform for sponsors and community campaigns across a longer event window.
The economics matter too. The standard ballot fee remains £79.99, with the "double your chances" donation route reducing the price to £49.99 for ballotted runners who are willing to forfeit the fee if unsuccessful. With the bigger entry pool, the funds raised through the ballot fee donation pathway alone — which goes to the London Marathon Foundation — are likely to exceed any previous year, building on the £30 million in community grants the Foundation has distributed over its history. The operational challenge of policing a two-day weekend in central London will be paid for, in part, out of that revenue.
For runners, the immediate question is what to do between now and July. The ballot pool is locked, and the wave of charity team applications that traditionally follows a ballot announcement is expected to open in the next fortnight. Many of London's official charity partners now require fundraising commitments of £2,500 to £4,000 for a guaranteed bib, and the same demand pressure that drove 1.34 million entries will likely make those partner places harder to secure than in previous years. Whether London ultimately races on one day or two in 2027, getting in is now genuinely the hardest part.