In Elizabethan England London was a lot smaller than what it is today, with it's population increasing from 50,00 to 200,000 making it also appear smaller to those at the time. London is what we refer to as the "city" today and at the time had a large wall surrounding it's perimeter. With it's heavily increasing population it was clear something had to be done, however Queen Elizabeth refused to allow any new constructions outside the city walls so many houses crammed into the city. This caused a faster spread of diseases, resulting in the outbreaks of the smallpox and the plague (which in 1563 saw 24% of London's population wiped out). What didn't help was that, with no proper sanitation works, excrement filled chamber pots were dumped in the streets.
However London, as one of the largest cities in the country, was also said to be central to what was known as "the golden age", a time where creativity in the arts was rife.
20,000 people went to the theatre each week as it had been made accessible to the spread of social classes. Due to this increasing number many plays had shorter runs. As a low class citizen you could pay a penny to stand in the "groundlings", however this was poorly maintained and saw a lot of crime.
On the other hand higher classes could pay more to have seats and in places like the Globe would have the highest class sat at the highest seats looking down on the rest. They'd be in the galleries or sometimes the "lords rooms" if they had a lot of wealth. From this position everyone one would be able to observe those of higher status, who'd often not watch the shows but instead show off their finest clothes and mingle.
Audiences were vocal about their opinions on a play and were often known to thrown things at actors if they were not enjoying it, as well as issuing them with verbal abuse.
As well as this, due to the rate of the exploration of the planet, London saw an array of exotic items for sale. For example, the introduction of marmalade, potatoes, soap, tomatoes and rugs was brought in due to the explorations. Due to the trade being brought directly into the capital through the ports it encouraged an increasing fortune which leading to its growing prosperity.
For Shakespeare he'd of see many new things, which may have given him some influence for his plays. As I said previously he was lucky to live through the plague and other widespread illnesses and imagine other unknown illnesses and bugs would've arrived from the ships travelling into London, making it quite a dangerous place.
The system for audiences would've benefited Shakespeare as it would've given him a better income, however with the higher classes not really watching the plays he might not be completely satisfied.
References:
http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/uploads/files/2014/01/audiences.pdf
http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/uploads/files/2014/06/london.pdf
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