Tours
Billboard
The Rolling Stones Had the Biggest Summer of Their Career on Hackney Diamonds Tour
Written by djfrosty on October 24, 2024
Is it really summer without The Rolling Stones on tour? The rock icons have toured North America, Europe, or both, for every summer but three in the last 12 years, consistently topping charts and setting records. After a break in 2023, the Stones returned for the Hackney Diamonds Tour, playing 18 shows in 15 cities throughout the U.S. and Canada from the end of April through the middle of July. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the trek earned $235 million and sold 848,000 tickets.
The tour was in support of the band’s Hackney Diamonds album, released in October 2023. The set marked the band’s first album of original material since 2005’s A Bigger Bang. Hackney Diamonds debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 – the group’s highest-charting album since Bang also hit No. 3 – and extended the band’s record for the most top 10s on the chart.
The Hackney Diamonds Tour kicked off at Houston’s NRG Stadium on April 28, 2024,, bringing the Stones to more than 40,000 fans. By the time the band wrapped at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara on July 17, it had scored the highest-earning summer of its career. Sixty, its 2022 jaunt, earned $120.8 million, and the biggest of its four No Filter Tour legs brought in $177.8 million in 2019. While they’ve made more money on years-long treks, Mick Jagger & co. have never earned more than $200 million in a single season.
The Stones’ 2024 run was highlighted by double-headers in East Rutherford, N.J. (17 miles outside New York City), Chicago and Inglewood, Calif. (11 miles from downtown Los Angeles). Each of those engagements grossed more than $20 million, topped by the New Jersey shows at MetLife Stadium on May 23 and 26, which earned a combined $29.2 million and sold 105,000 tickets.
Those MetLife dates mark a career peak, setting the highest gross of the Stones’ 35-year Boxscore history. The Inglewood and Chicago dates also fall in the top 10, while Denver, Foxborough, Las Vegas and Philadelphia line up in the band’s all-time top 20, all between $15-16 million.
Every market on the tour delivered an eight-figure gross, with the lone exception of Glendale, Ariz., whose May 7 State Farm Stadium show grossed $8.4 million and sold 44,800 tickets.
The Hackney Diamonds Tour sets a new high for The Rolling Stones and pushes the band further into uncharted Boxscore territory. This is its sixth tour to earn more than $200 million and 10th to gross more than $100 million. Both counts are Boxscore records, extending their lead for the most nine-figure tours, now three $100-million tours away from the group’s closest competitors.
Dating back to a report for two shows at Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium on Aug. 31-Sept. 1, 1989, The Rolling Stones have earned $2.873 billion and sold 28.9 million tickets.