Last week, Billboard revealed its year-end Boxscore charts, ranking the top tours, venues and promoters of 2023. That coverage included analysis of the new wave of genre diverse artists crashing stadium stages and in turn, our charts. This week, we are breaking down the year’s biggest tours, genre by genre. Here, we continue with R&B.
R&B has some humongous contemporary stars – Beyoncé, Bruno Mars, Usher and more – but in the last decade, it’s been too reliant on those stars to keep it afloat. The graph below shows how the genre has experienced severe spikes and drops, often victim to the scheduling whims of a small group of headliners.
In 2016, when Beyoncé mounted The Formation World Tour, R&B spiked from 3.5% of the overall top 100 gross, to 8%. But in 2019, after Bruno Mars wrapped his globe-conquering 24K Magic Tour, its share plummeted from 11.5% to 2.7%.
In 2023, R&B is hitting from all sides. The established superstars named above – Beyoncé, Bruno Mars, Usher – were all active, joining forces with next-gen headliners such as SZA and The Weeknd. More than that, Lionel Richie, New Edition and others are harnessing their legacies to build the next phase of their touring careers. All of that builds to the genre’s biggest share of the top 100 tours, dating back more than a decade.
That mix of classic artists and ascendant stars bodes well for the genre, even when its biggest icons are off cycle.
Keep reading to check out the top 10 highest grossing tours by R&B artists, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. All reported shows worldwide between Nov. 1, 2022 – Sept. 30, 2023, are eligible. Here, we define R&B acts as artists who have recently featured on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums or Hot R&B Songs charts.
$33.8M / 264K tickets / 23 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: No. 78
With support from Earth, Wind & Fire, Lionel Richie mounted a sold-out U.S. arena tour in August and September. Highlights include the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif.; the Chase Center in San Francisco; Madison Square Garden in New York; and the TD Garden in Boston.
$34.4M / 377K tickets / 27 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: No. 76
After landing on the genre ranking last year as part of a co-headline tour with Lil Baby, Brown went out on his own for a tour through Europe in February and March. The trip included six shows at the O2 Arena in London, accounting for more than $10M of the tour’s overall haul.
$36.4M / 299K tickets / 31 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: No. 69
Another repeat from last year, New Edition sold almost 300,000 tickets in March and April, promoted by G-Squared Events and Black Promoters Collective. Major markets such as Atlanta, Chicago and Washington, D.C., were some of the highlights where the group sold more than 12,000 tickets and grossed more than $1.5M.
$40.1M / 169K tickets / 34 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: No. 62
Usher is No. 7 courtesy of 34 shows at Las Vegas’ Dolby Live. Spread between three extended runs, My Way the Las Vegas Residency is keeping the R&B superstar busy as he prepares for his halftime performance at Super Bowl LVIIII.
$50.9M / 481K tickets / 37 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: No. 43
Jackson’s Together Again Tour kicked off in Hollywood, Fla., before zig-zagging across the U.S. to its final destination at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena. Averaging almost 13,000 tickets, it marked her best ticket sales since the Rhythm Nation World Tour in 1990.
$57M / 420K tickets / 32 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: No. 38
SZA launched the SOS Tour with a North American leg in the spring, followed by a European leg in the summer, before returning for a victory lap in the U.S. and Canada in the fall. In all, extending beyond the 2023 Boxscore tracking period, SZA grossed $95.5 million and sold 674K tickets in 2023.
$58.7M / 609K tickets / 49 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: No. 36
Lizzo weaved through North America, Europe and Australia this year, adding to the $27.7 million gross from 2022. That means The Special Tour grossed $86.3 million and sold 853,000 tickets between its Sept. 23, 2022, opening in Sunrise, Fla., and its final bow in Auckland, New Zealand, on July 28, 2023.
$65.4M / 338K tickets / 29 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: No. 32
Like Usher, Mars sold many tickets at the Dolby Live in Vegas. But more than that, he went to Bahrain, South Korea, the Philippines and Chile for one-offs that made him one of the top-grossing touring acts of the year, despite not going on a proper tour.
$192.5M / 1.9M tickets / 35 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: No. 8
After topping the R&B/Hip-Hop list in 2022, The Weeknd is 2023’s R&B runner-up. He took the After Hours Til Dawn Tour to Europe and Mexico, building upon last year’s schedule in the U.S. and Canada. He broke the $10 million barrier in several cities, including Amsterdam, Milan and Paris.
$570.5M / 2.7M tickets / 55 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: No. 1
It should come as no surprise that Beyoncé is the top-grossing R&B artist of the year, considering she leads the all-genre Top Tours chart. Including one date in October that falls outside the 2023 tracking period, the Renaissance World Tour earned $579.8 million and sold 2.8 million tickets. And though the tour is over, the story continues, as Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé just opened atop the U.S. box office with more than $21 million.