State Champ Radio Billboard Boxscore
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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. Today, we begin with Latin.
Throughout the 2010s, Latin acts – here, defined as artists who primarily perform in Spanish – were consistently supporting players on the Boxscore charts. Strong supporting players, with generally a combined 3-6% share of the yearly top 100 tours’ total gross, but supporting, nonetheless. But as the many subgenres that comprise Latin music’s growing global footprint gained international recognition and popularity, acts from Puerto Rico, Colombia, Mexico and more returned from the pandemic with a strengthened touring audience.
Latin’s top-100 share rose from 5.3% in 2019 to 12.1% in 2022. That was thanks, in large part, to Bad Bunny’s record-breaking year atop the year-end Top Tours chart, plus fumes from Daddy Yankee’s farewell tour. In 2023, the genre dips to 11.5% in 2023. But in the absence of Bad Bunny’s $373.5 million from last year, Latin’s deepening bench picked up the slack to remain relatively steady, signaling the potential for even more growth in the years to come.
While reggaetón and pop acts continued to power Latin touring, 2023 marked the rise of regional Mexican music, on streaming services and on stages. Eslabon Armado, Fuerza Regida and Peso Pluma conquered Billboard’s global charts, while those acts, Grupo Firme and others were selling out arenas across the U.S. and Central America.
Scroll to check out the top 10 highest grossing tours by Latin artists, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. All reported shows worldwide between Nov. 1, 2022 – Sept. 30, 2023 are eligible.
Carin Leon
Image Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Latin Recording Academy
A decade ago, the top eight acts on the 2013 Billboard Boxscore Top Tours chart each took in more than $100 million in ticket sales. Of those, Taylor Swift and Rihanna were young superstars; Pink and Beyoncé were each in their second decade as solo performers; and three — Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi and The Rolling Stones — were legacy rock acts. (The eighth was Cirque du Soleil’s Michael Jackson show.) Those results were typical for the time, which was why concert industry executives feared for years that their business wouldn’t have a steady supply of superstars that could fill stadiums and arenas after acts like the Stones and Elton John retired.
Now in 2023, the second full year of post-pandemic touring, 17 acts reached the $100 million mark (and 13 hit the inflation-adjusted equivalent of $132 million). Of those, nine released a debut album after 2010: Harry Styles, Morgan Wallen, Ed Sheeran, The Weeknd, BLACKPINK, Karol G, Drake, Luke Combs and Post Malone.
They look and sound differently, too. Unlike the rock acts that dominated the Boxscore charts in 2013 and for many of the years before and after, this new generation of headliners leans more toward pop, either in terms of genre (Styles, Sheeran, BLACKPINK), radio airplay (The Weeknd, Post Malone) or both. They’re more diverse, both personally and in terms of audience appeal, and more likely to score hits on the Billboard Hot 100. And they have enough drawing power to charge as much or more than legacy rock acts that appeal to an older, and presumably wealthier, audience.
To understand why so many newer acts can now gross more than $100 million, it helps to look at how that happens. To score those kinds of results, an act needs to not only sell a lot of tickets — it needs to sell them for a fairly high price. For years, most stadium acts had their roots in classic rock, and they alone could break the $100 mark for per-ticket pricing, at least partly because their audience tends to have more money and partly because fans knew they wouldn’t tour forever.
Some younger top acts use elaborate productions and cultural cachet to create that same sense of event — the fear of missing out — that makes fans willing to part with more money. That’s at the heart of the year’s top outing, Swift’s The Eras Tour, which Billboard Boxscore estimates brought in $920 million. (Swift and her team opted not to report attendance or ticket sales to Billboard Boxscore, which disqualifies her from the chart. Swift, who has previously reported her ticket sales, is not the first act to opt out, but she’s the first who would have been a contender for the top spot.)
If Swift had reported her numbers, she would certainly come in ahead of the official No. 1, Beyoncé’s Renaissance world tour, which took in $570.5 million from 55 shows during the tracking period. (Beyoncé played a final show on Oct. 1, which added $9.3 million to the tour’s overall haul.) That’s the highest single-year gross ever reported to Boxscore. Some of that success was due to pent-up demand — Beyoncé hadn’t performed as a solo artist since the 2016 Formation World Tour — and some resulted from more aggressive pricing. Many acts have raised ticket prices, apparently in order to capture more value that might otherwise go to scalpers.
Like Beyoncé’s shows, Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres world tour, which came in at No. 2 with $342.5 million from 55 concerts, had an elaborate visual component. So did Styles’ arena outing, which took in $338.2 million from 69 concerts, including nine at the Los Angeles Forum. Rounding out the top five were Wallen ($260.4 million from 44 shows) and Sheeran ($256.9 million from 46). Filling out the top 17 tours that grossed over $100 million were P!nk, John, The Weeknd, Depeche Mode, BLACKPINK, Karol G, Drake, Combs, Metallica, Dead & Company, Post Malone and George Strait.
The concert business isn’t only reacting to this trend toward younger and more diverse artists — it has played a role in making it happen. Over the last decade, the industry has shifted its focus from breaking individual acts as top touring attractions to creating a venue network that can identify artists with growth potential.
AEG and Live Nation have both adopted this strategy, and each has its own club and theater network that it uses to court artists like Wallen, Karol G, Combs and Post Malone. From there, artists can be steered into the company’s other divisions, including festivals or specialty promoters like The Messina Group, which is half-owned by AEG and this year produced tours by Swift, Strait, Eric Church and others.
This approach to developing artists as live acts focuses on boosting them to a certain level of popularity before moving on to the next. It’s paying off. The total gross of the top 10 tours is up 22% from 2022, to $2.7 billion, while the total for the top 100 is up 17%, to $7.5 billion. (These figures undercount industry growth because the time period that Boxscore used is a month shorter than in previous years — Nov. 1, 2022, to Sept. 30, 2023, rather than the previous period of Nov. 1 to Oct. 31.) That means 36% of the money taken by the top 100 tours went to the top 10 — and 51% went to the top 20.
That sharp rise in revenue partly comes from increased ticket prices, especially for younger artists. In fact, in a break with long-standing industry practice, younger acts are now charging more for some tickets than veterans. This year, it cost an average of $33 less to see the oldest of the top 10 touring acts, 76-year-old John (average: $166), than the youngest, 29-year-old Wallen (average: $199).
That might not last. The average price for the top 100 tours is now around $122, and fans may not be able to pay much more. A recent Peak Performance study by UTA Intelligence and Variety surveyed 1,500 concertgoers and found that over 62% said the biggest impediment to seeing more shows was the price, while 38% said the sole reason they didn’t go to a concert they wanted to attend was the expense.
Another year, another Boxscore recap. After Ed Sheeran scored consecutive wins in 2018-19, Elton John and The Rolling Stones led abridged COVID-flanked charts in 2020-21, and Bad Bunny broke ground in 2022, Beyoncé rules the 2023 year-end Top Tours ranking.
According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the Renaissance World Tour grossed $570.5 million during the 2023 tracking period – Nov. 1, 2022-Sept. 30, 2023 – and another $9.3 million on its final show on Oct. 1. But the tour didn’t even begin until May 10 – and now, you can take a look at how the Top Tours chart took shape, from start to finish.
For the first month, Coldplay and Elton John dominated the race. John began ahead with $7.8 million on Nov. 1 from a show at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium. The final shows of Coldplay’s 10-night run in Buenos Aires gave them the lead by Nov. 2, but a week later, John resumed his reign.
After dominating the 2022 year-end charts, Latin music reigned in December and into the new year. Bad Bunny took over first, before ceding to Daddy Yankee, whose farewell La Ultima Vuelta World Tour grossed $72.5 million between early November and its late December finish.
The Brits returned to the top in January, as John reclaimed the No. 1 spot, followed by Harry Styles.
Notably, figures for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour have not yet been reported to Boxscore. While that disqualifies her from appearing on year-end charts, Billboard’s projections place her at the center of the year’s biggest touring acts.
Based on estimates, Swift would have ended the Styles era around mid-April, becoming the first artist in 2023 to gross $200 million, $300 million, $400 million, and beyond. By the end of August, The Eras Tour played its last shows of the tracking period, with more than $800 million in the bank.
Based on official figures, Styles and John continued to flip the top spot well into the summer, until Beyoncé broke through in August. The Renaissance World Tour brought her to the top 10 within a month of launching, with $85.8 million by June 5 and $141.8 million by the end of its first leg (June 28).
Kicking off the North American leg on July 8, Beyoncé kicked into high gear, averaging nearly double the nightly grosses of her European shows. Her three shows at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Aug. 11-12 and 14 charged the tour’s overall gross from $324.8 million to $364.6 million, pushing the Renaissance World Tour to No. 1, where it’d stay through the end of the tracking period.
Ultimately, at $570.5 million, Beyoncé enjoys a 67% lead over Coldplay, which snuck by Styles at the last minute to land at No. 2.
Though they never occupied the top spot, BLACKPINK and Ed Sheeran were among the top 10 throughout most of the year. The K-pop girl-group spent the first four months of the tracking period in the top five, before dipping off the graph and returning to the top 10 for year’s end. Sheeran took the early months off from touring, and then shot onto the list by late February. For his part, Morgan Wallen blossomed in the late months with stadium shows in support of One Thing at a Time, ultimately yielding the biggest year-end gross for a country tour ever.
Click here to see the full year-end 2023 Boxscore charts.
From K-pop to Latin and beyond, Billboard’s Boxscore charts are undergoing a facelift, spotlighted by a diverse crop of artists crowding the 2023 year-end report. While pop and rock have long dominated the touring space, the two central genres’ combined market share has dropped from 69% in 2019, to 59% in 2022, and now to 48% in 2023.
Traditionally, the common threshold for a stadium tour is that the artist in question should be generally ubiquitous: recognizable by face and name, with a handful-plus of sing-along hooks, and accessible across generations, genres and cultures. That explains the sustained success of veteran acts such as Elton John, Madonna and The Rolling Stones.
But even without discographies that date back to the 20th century, contemporary acts have infiltrated the stadium space while still operating as current hitmakers. Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift have broken ground with record-breaking global tours that eschew past notions that underestimated young audiences. Those acts, though still building their own legendary discographies, pass the various tests mentioned above, with widespread recognition and iconic hits.
In the post-pandemic era, the goal posts have shifted once again. Beyond the slew of mainstream stars that fit the established mold – generally from mainland U.S., Canada or the U.K., performing in English, and catering to pop or an adjacent radio format – stadium stages, and therefore the upper reaches of the year-end Boxscore charts, have some fresh faces.
Rounding out the top 10 of the 2023 Top Tours chart, BLACKPINK grossed $148.3 million and sold 703,000 tickets from 29 reported shows in the eligibility window. Next, Karol G is No. 11 with $146.9 million and 843,000 tickets sold from just 19 dates. Side by side, they lead genre rankings for K-pop and Latin, respectively.
Next to artists such as The Weeknd, P!nk and Luke Combs, BLACKPINK and Karol G stand out as stadium stars and Boxscore chart-toppers. The nine acts that ranked higher on Top Tours have, on average, 12 top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. BLACKPINK and Karol G, on the other hand, have spent a combined total of one week in the top 10, when Karol G’s “TQG,” with Shakira, hit No. 7 earlier this year.
This puts both acts at odds with the presumed criteria for stadium acts. Neither artist has conquered the Hot 100, nor have they been nominated for a general-field Grammy award, hosted Saturday Night Live, or made hyped-up cameos or supporting turns in a major film or television series. To boot, their careers are young. Karol G released her first album in 2017 and BLACKPINK did so in 2020. Depeche Mode – the only other act in the top 10 without a No. 1 hit on the Hot 100 – has been building its fan base for more than 40 years.
Both BLACKPINK and Karol G have, however, reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, perhaps signifying a deep, passionate fan base ready to pay top-dollar for concert tickets, even without the wider-spread recognition that often accompanies hit singles.
Notably, neither are the first of their respective genres to hit the jackpot. Bad Bunny broke ground for Latin artists last year when he ruled the 2022 year-end chart. In doing so, he broke BTS’ record for the highest year-end finish for an act that primarily performs in a non-English language, after the K-pop boy band finished 2019 at No. 3.
If there’s a constant with non-English-language acts playing stadiums, it’s that with the minor exceptions of Bad Bunny and BTS, they’ve been outliers with vast fan bases that sometimes aren’t represented in the mainstream. Initially, Karol G’s team booked six stadiums in “safe” markets. Those dates quickly blossomed to nine when Los Angeles, Miami and New York shows sold out and second dates were added. When all was said and done, she played 19 shows in 16 cities.
“She was the one who insisted on playing the stadium, not a 360 arena,” says her sister, Jessica Giraldo, who oversees Karol G’s businesses. “She was the one who wanted to do a stadium tour. She said, ‘Believe in my vision.’”
When reflecting on the growth of regional Mexican music in 2023 at Billboard’s Latin Music Week, Live Nation’s Jorge Garcia noted, “These are the same people that are buying Drake tickets. They’re also the fans buying the Fuerza Regida ticket.” Once impenetrable lines that divided artists by genre and culture are fading away, quickly.
The 2023 achievements by BLACKPINK and Karol G do a few things. For one, their collective triumph means that Bad Bunny and BTS’ banner years were not anomalies. More than that, both genres have deeper benches than ever. K-pop girl-group TWICE also played U.S. stadiums, while BTS member SUGA conquered arenas as a soloist. Both grossed more than $50 million this year.
Further, 14 artists who primarily perform in Spanish find themselves among the year-end top 100, representing a mix of legacy acts and newcomers; reggaeton, pop and regional Mexican; and artists from Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico and more. Latin music’s share of the top 100’s total gross dipped from 12.1% in 2022 to 11.5%, but considering the absence of Bad Bunny’s $373.5 million gross from last year, Latin’s steady hold points toward more growth over the coming years.
The Boxscore arrival of BLACKPINK and Karol G is also a win for gender representation. Women doubled their share of the top 100 tours from last year. Of just 12 woman-identifying acts in the top 100, the genres of K-pop and Latin claim four (TWICE and Ana Gabriel, in addition to BLACKPINK and Karol G).
They’re also skewing the Boxscore charts younger. The members of BLACKPNIK range from 26 to 28 years old, and Karol G is 32, all well below the top 100’s average of 46.6. The two youngest acts in the top 100 are both K-pop groups (ENHYPEN averages 20 and TOMORROW X TOGETHER averages 22). The next youngest are Latin acts (the group Fuerza Regida averages 23 and soloist Peso Pluma is 24). Members of Grupo Firme, SEVENTEEN and Bad Bunny himself are all in their 20s, among others from both genres.
In all, genre diversity helps make 2023 one of the youngest years in Boxscore history. It’s the youngest top 100 since 2014, when One Direction (average age of 21 at the time) was No. 1, and the youngest top 10 since 2001, when *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys paired up in the top five.
Legacy acts from pop, rock and R&B continue to do stellar business at the box office, proven by the presence of Rod Stewart, Lionel Richie and Journey, among many others. But the push of younger artists from diverse genres only points to the touring industry, and specifically the slate of artists capable of selling out stadiums, being able to replenish itself with fresh faces well into the next decade.
With K-pop and Latin genres leading the charge, the reshaping of the U.S. touring circuit continues. Late last year, Belgium’s Stromae — mixing French-language pop, rap and electronic — played a brief North American tour, including two nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Hailing from Nigeria, Asake sold out the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Sept. 8, while Burna Boy launched a full North American arena tour in early November. If Bad Bunny and BTS blew the door open, then BLACKPINK, Karol G and a growing list of international artists are breaking down the wall.
Click here to see the full year-end 2023 Boxscore charts.
Dating back almost 40 years, all Boxscore rankings are based on figures reported to Billboard. Data is reported from a variety of official industry sources, from artist managers and agents to promoters and venue executives.
All reported shows, worldwide, between Nov. 1, 2022 – Sept. 30, 2023, are eligible for year-end 2023 consideration.
Beyoncé claims the year’s top-grossing tour, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. Between May 10 and Oct. 1, the Renaissance World Tour grossed $579.8 million and sold 2.8 million tickets. With a tracking period of Nov. 1, 2022 – Sept. 30, all but one of those shows powers her record-breaking finish at No. 1 on Billboard’s year-end Top Tours chart.
Last year marked the first full year-end tracking period after the pandemic forced venues to close. In 2022, Bad Bunny ruled the annual recap with $373 million, on his way to a record-breaking $434 million during the ’22 calendar year. This year, that record washes away, as Queen Bey returns with her first solo headline tour in seven years.
The Renaissance World Tour earned $570.5 million and sold 2.7 million tickets during the 2023 tracking period, plus another $9.3 million and 53,200 tickets in Kansas City on Oct. 1. That makes it the biggest one-year sum for an artist in Boxscore history, dating back to the mid-1980s. Both Bad Bunny and Ed Sheeran grossed more than $434 million in 2022 and 2018, respectively.
Click here to see the full year-end 2023 Boxscore charts.
The tour’s $580 million is a towering total, but even more impressive when achieved in less than five months. Beyoncé topped four of Boxscore’s monthly recaps this year, including a record-setting three-peat where she grossed more than $100 million in July, August and September. Her August haul of $179 million is the largest reported monthly gross since the charts launched in February 2019.
The Renaissance World Tour is the seventh highest grossing tour in the Boxscore archives. Based on Billboard’s projections, official reports for The Eras Tour would give Beyoncé some company, with Swift joining her as the only two women and only American soloists in the top 10. Beyoncé is also the only Black artist on the all-time ranking.
The well-documented combined domination of Beyoncé and Swift breaks up the boy’s club that has ruled the last handful of year-end Boxscore recaps. Bad Bunny, The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Ed Sheeran (twice) and U2 have topped the last six annual Top Tours charts. The last times that women presided were in 2015 and 2016, topped by – who else – Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, respectively. Before that, women only led the year-end list three times: Tina Turner in 2000, and Madonna in 2004 and 2012.
The year-end Top Tours chart breaks ground even beyond Queen Bey’s contributions, and without the official help of Swift. There have never been as many tours above $300 million (three), $200 million (seven) or $100 million (17). Harry Styles, Morgan Wallen, BLACKPINK help lead one of the youngest and most genre-diverse annual recaps, while being the highest-grossing year ever for Billboard Boxscore. Despite the 11-month tracking period marking the shortest year-end window ever, 2023’s top 100 tours grossed a combined $7.5 billion, up 17% from last year, and up 53% from the pre-pandemic total in 2019.
Dating back almost 40 years, all Boxscore rankings are based on figures reported to Billboard. Data is reported from a variety of official industry sources, from artist managers and agents to promoters and venue executives.
Reporting is and has always been voluntary, and some artists, venues, and promoters opt to withhold data from representation on our charts. Notably, figures for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour have not yet been reported to Boxscore. While that disqualifies her from appearing on year-end charts, the tour’s widely recognized ubiquity is acknowledged throughout Billboard’s year-in-touring coverage. Click here to read more.
All reported shows, worldwide, between Nov. 1, 2022 – Sept. 30, 2023 are eligible for year-end 2023 consideration.
The 2023 year-end Boxscore charts go live on Thursday (Nov. 30), but before reviewing the ranked lists of the biggest tours, venues and promoters in the world, Billboard is taking a zoomed-in look at the U.S., highlighting the highest-grossing concert engagements in each state.
The figures displayed here are based on figures officially reported to Billboard Boxscore, covering a tracking period of Nov. 1, 2022 – Sept. 30, 2023. That means that Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour is not included, as representatives for her tour did not report. Click to read more about Billboard’s Swiftian projections.
Beyoncé dominates the map, leading in 11 states. Major-market stadium shows on the Renaissance World Tour took top honors in California, Georgia, Illinois and New Jersey, while hometown shows in Houston add another ring for Texas.
Morgan Wallen follows, winning eight states. Also in stadiums, he takes the gold in country-minded Midwest and southern states like Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio. His March release One Thing at a Time finished at No. 1 on the year-end Billboard 200 albums chart, while its second track, “Last Night,” is No. 1 on the year-end Billboard Hot 100 songs ranking.
P!nk and Post Malone are two peas in a pod, both with three regions to their name. The former wins in the District of Columbia, Nebraska and North Dakota, while the latter is tops in Connecticut, New Mexico and Utah.
P!nk’s win in Washington D.C. comes from a Aug. 7 show at Nationals Stadium, with $7.2 million in the bank. Just five miles east, Beyoncé’s concert at FedEx Field in Landover, Md. cleared the path for P!nk to take D.C., though Beyoncé’s Maryland show generally served the same touring market.
Seven other artists doubled up, from Zach Bryan in Kansas and Oklahoma to Karol G in Florida and Puerto Rico. Another 12 acts appear on the map, ranging from comedians like Kevin Hart and Sebastian Maniscalco to rock veterans like Journey and Phish, and relative newcomers like Jelly Roll and Noah Kahan.
Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour is poised to become the highest-grossing global tour of all time, according to Billboard’s estimates.
While no official numbers have been reported yet, Swift’s tour should pass current record-holder Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour with more than $900 million in ticket sales so far.
On Sunday (Nov. 26), Swift played her last scheduled show of the year, wrapping an intense run of 66 concerts in the United States, Mexico and South America. Representatives for The Eras Tour have not yet reported official revenue or attendance figures to Billboard Boxscore or any other trade journal or news entity, but the enormity of The Eras Tour is impossible to ignore, with a total that amounts to a staggering average of nearly $14 million per show.
Dating back almost 40 years, all Boxscore rankings are based on figures reported to Billboard. Data is reported from a variety of official industry sources, from artist managers and agents to promoters and venue executives. Reporting has always been voluntary, and some artists, venues and promoters opt to withhold data from representation on our charts. It is not uncommon for artists to not report — or to wait until the end of a tour, which is still more than a year away in Swift’s case — though it’s rare that such a well-documented blockbuster tour, in contention for top year-end honors, is not submitted. Swift’s abstention disqualifies her from appearing on year-end Boxscore charts.
Swift kicked off The Eras Tour in Glendale, Ariz., on March 17, playing 53 domestic shows before wrapping at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., outside Los Angeles, on Aug. 9. She hit a total of 20 U.S. cities, and 11 of those venues have provided attendance figures to Billboard. Based on those numbers, as well as estimates based on aggressive scaling at the other nine stadiums, Swift likely sold 3.3 million tickets over 53 shows in the United States, or an average of 63,000 tickets per show.
Sources close to the tour point to an average domestic ticket price of around $252. This is in line with the prices for the summer’s other major concert event, Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour, which maintained a $135 ticket in Europe and a $253 ticket in North America. While ticket prices might dip in certain markets and bloom in others, using that number as an average puts the U.S. leg of The Eras Tour at $838.3 million. That total gross spreads out to $15.8 million per show, a staggering figure that exceeds recent tours by Bad Bunny, Beyoncé, and The Rolling Stones, each of which had giant totals of their own.
Taylor Swift performs onstage during Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour at Levi’s Stadium on July 28, 2023, in Santa Clara, Calif.
Jeff Kravitz/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
That projected $838 million haul is more than enough to make Eras the highest-grossing U.S. and North American tour ever. John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour holds the official Boxscore title, with $567.7 million in the United States and Canada. That total reflects 135 shows over a span of four years, compared to Swift’s 53 shows in less than six months.
Moreover, The Eras Tour’s U.S. gross would situate it as the second-highest grossing tour of all time based on global figures, before even crossing the border. John’s farewell tour remains the official record-holder with $939.1 million.
Since wrapping the Eras Tour’s U.S. leg, Swift played four shows at Mexico City’s Foro Sol (Aug. 24-27) and, more recently, nine South American shows, spread between Buenos Aires in Argentina and Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Those dates bring her much closer to John’s global record, even based on relatively conservative projections. But as we’ve seen with virtually every worldwide stadium tour in the last two years, the post-pandemic surge in ticket prices hasn’t been as severe outside the United States.
Further, these are Swift’s first shows in these Latin American markets. That means pent-up demand likely drove huge sales, though her base isn’t quite as explosive there as it is in the States.
Based on estimates considering the high end of grosses and ticket prices for each Latin American venue’s post-pandemic history, The Eras Tour likely earned another $60 million to $75 million and more than 750,000 tickets from those 13 shows.
In all, Billboard estimates that Swift has generated $906.1 million and sold 4.1 million tickets in 2023 across all shows in the United States, Mexico and South America. That would unofficially make The Eras Tour the biggest tour of 2023. And when considering Swift’s total revenue from the tour, it doesn’t even account for merchandise sales, sponsorships, music streaming and sales boosts, or her self-produced and released Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert film.
Swift is scheduled to resume The Eras Tour on Feb. 7 with four shows at the Tokyo Dome in Japan. Then, she’ll play seven shows in Australia and six in Singapore. In May, she kicks off a 50-date run in Europe before returning to North America for 18 shows in new markets, including the tour’s first entry into Canada. In all, that’s 85 shows to go, with the possibility of more to come, considering her recent concert additions to runs in London and Vancouver.
These upcoming international legs are already more ambitious than any previous Swift tour. While this year’s 53 U.S. shows are in line with what she did on 2018’s Reputation Stadium Tour and 2015’s The 1989 World Tour, those treks included just six and seven shows in Europe, respectively — a fraction of next year’s slate of 50.
If we use the comparison between Beyoncé’s recent European and North American grosses as a north star, in Europe, Swift could be looking at $8.5 million per show, or about $420 million over the entire leg. And even if next year’s North American shows dip from 2023’s record-breakers, the U.S. and Canada shows could add another $240 million to 260 million. Including the 17 shows in Asia and Australia, The Eras Tour is likely headed toward a total gross of $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion by the end of 2024. It will be the first in history to earn more than $1 billion in ticket sales and will set Swift far apart from her competitors. If figures skew toward the higher end of what’s possible, she could double John’s current record gross.
Representatives for Swift did not respond to a request for comment on Billboard‘s estimates at press time.
U2 wrapped the first leg of the U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere residency on Nov. 4 with unprecedented box-office results. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, U2’s 17 Sphere shows in Las Vegas grossed $109.8 million and sold 281,000 tickets. Opening night at Sphere was Sept. 29. U2 played another show the next […]
P!nk played 10 shows, split between two separate tours, in October. In all, those dates grossed $51.2 million and sold 271,000 tickets, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. That’s enough to rule Billboard’s monthly Top Tours chart, marking her third month at No. 1 since the charts launched in February 2019.
P!nk began the month in San Diego, playing an Oct. 3 show at Snapdragon Stadium. After three more stadium shows on the Summer Carnival tour, she transitioned to the arena-focused Trustfall Tour, playing dates in California, Denver, and Kansas City. She’s the first artist to lead the Top Tours list via multiple tours. It’s rare enough for an artist to play two tours within a year of one another, but it does happen, per recent treks by Bad Bunny and Post Malone, among others. Both tours’ setlist, personnel and staging are relatively similar, though the Trustfall Tour puts an extra accent on its namesake album.
The October Summer Carnival shows earned $30.9 million and sold 190,000 tickets, while the six Trustfall shows brought in $20.2 million and 81,100 tickets. That means that on average, P!nk’s stadium dates averaged more than twice as much revenue as her arena concerts, at $7.7 million and $3.4 million, respectively.
The transition from stadiums to arenas, particularly in North America, makes sense as the weather shifts and outdoor concerts become less viable. Still, with active stadium tours in Oceania and South America, P!nk’s monthly gold medal in (primarily) arenas is significant.
In fact, P!nk is the first artist to crown the Top Tours chart while touring arenas in 2023 – though she did so with the help of four stadium performances. Trans-Siberian Orchestra staged the last arena win in December of last year. Before that, Bad Bunny was tops in February and March of 2022, before ruling the chart in stadiums later that year.
P!nk was No. 2 in August, when she and Beyoncé became the first women to ever rank Nos. 1-2 together. She previously topped the chart in March and July of 2019, while barreling toward the end of the Beautiful Trauma World Tour. That trek grossed $397.3 million and sold 3.1 million tickets, standing tall as the third highest-grossing tour by a woman in the Boxscore archives, behind Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour ($579.8 million in 2023) and Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet Tour ($407.7 million in 2008-09).
P!nk is one of just three woman-identifying acts to lead the Top Tours chart. She follows Beyoncé, who ran the ranking in four of the previous five months. Plus, the Spice Girls were No. 1 in June 2019. Both in terms of unique artists, and in total months, women have been No. 1 for less than 20% of the time since the monthly chart premiered.
Including the Summer Carnival Tour from earlier this year, and current through the Nov. 14 Trustfall show in Miami, P!nk has grossed $309.4 million and sold just over 2 million tickets in 2023.
Eight of P!nk’s October dates appear on the Top Boxscores chart, at No. 7 with $9 million from Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium on Oct. 7, and at No. 10 with $8.1 million from the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. on Oct. 5. Unsurprisingly, the stadium shows come up first, even above double-header arena engagements in San Francisco and Kansas City.
Top Boxscores is led by RBD. The Latin pop group grossed $19.5 million over four nights at Los Angeles’ BMO Stadium (Oct. 18-20, 22). Without any other reported shows in October, it’s enough to make the venue No. 1 on Top Stadiums.
Those dates power RBD’s No. 2 finish on Top Tours with $39.4 million overall, scoring a second consecutive month in the runner-up position. Through Nov. 19, the Soy Rebelde Tour has grossed $182.6 million and sold 1.1 million. It’ll likely cross $200 million before the end of the year, becoming the second tour by a Latin act to ever do so. Bad Bunny’s World’s Hottest Tour grossed $314.1 million last year.
Last month, RBD joined Beyoncé, Coldplay, Drake and Morgan Wallen in the top five, making the most genre-diverse top five ever. October’s ranking isn’t quite as spread-out – SZA and The Weeknd double up for R&B, and Luis Miguel adds more Latin star-power – but it does block rock, the most traditionally steady genre on the touring circuit, from the upper echelon altogether.
Paul McCartney, the Eagles, John Mayer and Depeche Mode follow at Nos. 6-9, giving rock its due in the top 10. Still, October marks only the third month since the charts’ 2019 beginning without a rock act in the top five. Previously, KISS was held off at No. 6 in April 2019, and Elton John in the same spot in October ’19.
The Top Tours chart is spiked with four co-headline billings. Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull & Ricky Martin kicked off The Trilogy Tour on Oct. 14, earning $20.9 million from the first eight shows. Iglesias had previously toured with Pitbull and Martin, though these are the first concerts for the trio as a group. Elsewhere, Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks grossed $10.5 million from one date at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium, at No. 3 on Top Boxscores.
The other two co-headline pairs are blink-and-you’ll-miss-it team-ups. Ben Gibbard pulls double duty as the lead of Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service, each celebrating a 20th anniversary of landmark 2003 albums. Their collaborative – or split-personality – tour brought in $11.5 million in October, finishing with a total of $22.1 million since its September kick-off.
Finally, Ms. Lauryn Hill & The Fugees are No. 30 with $7.8 million and 61,500 tickets from five shows, showcasing Hill’s run of ‘90s R&B and hip-hop, alongside Wyclef Jean and Pras. While we noted that P!nk and Beyoncé achieved a first-time top-two finish for women only a couple months ago, Hill is part of an even-more-sparse Boxscore history: She is just the second female rap artist to ever appear on the chart, following Cardi B via her co-headline appearance with Bruno Mars on the inaugural February 2019 list.
Tate McRae wrapped the sold-out Are We Flying Tour in October, but she’s busier than ever. After launching her next cycle with “Greedy,” she will be performing this weekend (Nov. 18) on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, en route to the release of the album Think Later in December. Next year, McRae takes the new album on tour on the biggest stages of her career.
The Are We Flying Tour grossed $2.2 million and sold 60,000 tickets between Sept. 5 and Oct. 15, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. Expect those numbers to triple (and then some) next year, as McRae levels up from clubs and small theaters to boutique amphitheaters, and in one major case, an arena.
At its most extreme, McRae’s level-up expands her audience almost five times over. After selling out Dallas’ House of Blues at 1,674 tickets on Oct. 15, she’s scheduled to play the 8,000-capacity Toyota Music Factory in July. After playing House of Blues in Boston to a crowd of 2,705 fans on Sept. 16, she’ll play two nights at the MGM Music Hall at Fenway, to a potential combined crowd of more than 10,000. Similar jumps follow in Minneapolis, Nashville and San Francisco.
Of the 16 North American markets that line up with shows from her recent tour, McRae is playing a venue at least twice the size in 12. The only market with a dip in capacity is Los Angeles: She sold out two nights at the Hollywood Palladium (7,671 tickets on Oct. 4-5) and is scheduled to play the Greek Theatre (6,162 capacity) on July 11.
While McRae could move 10,000 tickets in Boston and at the Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion in Rogers, Ark., two markets could break 15,000. In Toronto, she’ll play the Budweiser Stage, a 16,000-capacity amphitheater that has recently hosted sold-out concerts by Morgan Wallen, Post Malone, Janet Jackson and more. Hailing from Calgary, Alberta, it’s the only home-country show on the tour.
And after clearing two nights at The Rooftop at Pier 17 (7,494 tickets on Sept. 19-20), McRae is scheduled to close out the North American leg at New York’s Madison Square Garden, which has hosted A-list pop stars from Harry Styles to Madonna. Assuming she doesn’t play in-the-round, she could sell as many as 15,000 tickets.
With every show on McRae’s 2023 tour sold out, the upgrade in 2024 is warranted. There’s also her forthcoming album, already sporting the biggest single of her career. “Greedy” is No. 11 on the Nov. 18-dated Billboard Hot 100, bringing her closer to a top 10 hit than ever before. Previously, “You Broke Me First” slow-burned its way to No. 17. She has five other Hot 100 entries to her name, including collaborations with Khalid, Troye Sivan and Tiesto.
And while McRae can anticipate tripling her North American audience, and potentially expand her grosses further with accelerated demand, The Think Later World Tour will be her first major trip outside North America. The trek begins with 25 shows in Europe and ends with nine in Australia and New Zealand.
Without any Boxscore history on either continent, projections are tricky. But McRae’s international chart history bodes well for her live prospects. While “You Broke Me First” clawed its way to the top 20 of the Hot 100 in March of 2021, it got there five months sooner on the global stage, reaching No. 17 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. list in October 2020, and then peaking at No. 15 in November. Further, “Greedy” has spent its first eight weeks on the Global Excl. U.S. chart in the top 10, returning to its so-far high of No. 3 this week. On Billboard’s Hits of the World chart, “Greedy” already hit No. 1 in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, and the Netherlands. It’s a top 10 hit in 16 more territories.
Live Nation will promote the Think Later World Tour, with Presley Regier as support in North America, and charlieonafriday in Europe and Australia.
McRae, who is the latest Billboard cover star, is set to perform for the 2023 Billboard Music Awards, which streams Sunday (Nov. 19) at 8 p.m. ET via BBMAs.watch and the Billboard and the BBMAs’ social channels.
