It’s no secret that concerts have become a significant source of revenue for artists. The subject comes up repeatedly as the world of streaming evolves and changes. At Soundiiz, we love music, and we love statistics. What are the highest-grossing tours of all time? And why are concert tickets so expensive? We’ve got the list for you! And some analysis.
What are the highest-grossing tours of all time? The context
Since 2019, concert prices have gone up. It’s a fact, and the statistics prove it. Vox said: “According to the live music trade publication Pollstar, the average ticket price of the top 100 music tours [in 2024] was $122.84. In 2019, it was $91.86 — a rise that outpaced inflation by a good margin. Back in 2000, it was $40.74. For the top 10 grossing tours in 2023, the average price was even higher: $152.97”.
The reason? In an increasingly digitalized world, fans want a different experience. More physical, more grounded in reality. Closer to their idols. Concerts are becoming a different way of listening to music, a collective experience that contrasts with the solitude of a music streaming platform. So there’s a demand. Stronger and stronger. Massive. Almost like a tidal wave. The consequence? For the biggest stars, it’s not uncommon for tickets available for sale to be sold out within minutes. And that’s regardless of the initial sale price. Long queues of thousands are the norm. And when the time’s up, all that’s left is the resale market. And that’s a recipe for disaster: ticket prices can skyrocket.
The Ticketmaster case
Another problem is the opacity of sales platforms like Ticketmaster. The company is at the heart of much criticism in the industry. They are accused of “hiding” certain tickets from sale to drive prices up on the resale market. How can you be sure you’ll be among the first to buy a ticket? Some say that having already bought several tickets via Ticketmaster increases your chances. Or that having an old account also earns points. A parallel economy is taking shape: some even sell Ticketmaster accounts, supposedly to be credible and to increase your chances of being among the first to buy a ticket.
But all this remains opaque. And it has to be said that the concert-ticket economy has its codes and mysteries. Exclusivity encourages anticipation and excitement, and the fear of missing out on a concert ticket leads to a proliferation of demand. In this context, price increases have little impact on purchasing intentions. What counts is being there! At the concert, live. Pure and simple.
What are the highest-grossing tours of all time? The list!
We know you’re looking forward to it! Our introduction? Interesting, but you want numbers! We understand.
In ninth and tenth place, we find the Rolling Stones in 2017 and 2021, with a tour worth $547 and $558 million. Ahead of them, in eighth place, is Beyoncé in 2023. Her Renaissance Tour brought in $580 million. Guns N’Roses, between 2016 and 2019, three years of touring, generated $584 million. In sixteenth place? Harry Styles between 2021 and 2023 for $617.3 million. Ahead of him was the group U2 between 2009 and 2011. They earned $736 million.
In fourth place: Ed Sheeran, with his three-year tour between 2017 and 2019 for $776 million. You can see a trend emerging, can’t you? Most of these tours are recent, even very recent. An illustration of the changing dimensions of the Live sector!
Coldplay snatches third place, with $810.9 million since 2022. Note that this tour is ongoing, so these statistics should increase.
In second place… Drum roll… Elton John! His tour from 2018 to 2023 generated a total of $939 million. Well, OK, the other artists mentioned above would have nibbled away if they’d done that many concerts for that long. But still, the numbers are impressive!
In the first place, and this should come as no surprise, as she has dominated the debates for several years now: Taylor Swift! And it’s an understatement to say that she’s run roughshod over the competition. Between 2023 and 2024, the Ears Tour generated no less than two billion dollars. Two billion dollars! Unreal figures that put her well ahead of the competition.
Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s recent example!
Singer SZA, already the holder of numerous streaming records, and the rapper, also accustomed to breaking records, have decided to join forces. The aim? A joint tour. And sell tens of thousands of tickets. It’s a clever strategy: SZA and Kendrick will splash big by uniting their two fan bases. And that’s exactly what’s happening.
Kendrick Lamar was already the first hip-hop artist to set a record for a single concert, taking in $5 million for a single show. But in Seattle on May 17, with SZA, Kendrick Lamar exploded that figure. Their joint performance generated $14.8 million… on a single evening! 60,941 tickets were sold. It’s also worth noting that the first night of Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s tour, named The Grand National Tour after Kendrick’s latest album, generated $9,125,000. In Seattle, nearly $6 million more was recorded.
In the process, Kendrick Lamar became the first and only rapper to earn over nine million dollars from a single concert. The previous record was held by Eminem in 2019, who generated over $8.7 million in Melbourne. It’s a colossal figure that’s also got people talking.
Many people were outraged by the price of tickets, most of which averaged $190. And all this for less-than-ideal seats set back from the stage.
What are the highest-grossing tours of all time? The consequences
What place is there for fans in this ecosystem that benefits only the very rich? Spending nearly two hundred dollars on a concert ticket is a luxury many can’t afford. But we are facing a snowball effect. Since the COVID-19 epidemic, which weakened an economy in the throes of reinvention, concert ticket prices have continued to rise. Increasingly ambitious tour operators are driving up prices. And it’s not just artists’ concerts in concert halls: the fees charged by certain artists at festivals are skyrocketing. The result? Organizers are forced to pass on these increases in ticket prices. And in the end, it’s the consumer who pays the price.
The trend began in the United States, notably with the pricing policy of Live Nation, one of the world’s biggest tour operators. But it quickly spread across the globe. In France, Spain, Germany, and other European countries, many fans are protesting against astronomical prices. But it works. Like Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s tour or The Weeknd, another superstar with high ticket prices, artists still manage to fill their tours. So why deprive yourself?
When will it stop?
But where does it all end? We can ask whether these increases result from the massive domination of music streaming as the preferred means of listening to music. With low pay-per-stream remuneration, concerts are becoming vital to the music business. Are artists compensating for this by selling concert tickets for more than they did a few years ago? It would be wrong to claim that music streaming alone is responsible for these increases. There are many factors at play, both economic and political.
We mustn’t forget that organizing a concert involves many different areas of activity: the artists themselves, of course, but also the venues, producers, tour operators, labels, local players, and many other stakeholders. The music events industry is complex, and any price increases are bound to have repercussions for others! Therefore, these price increases for single tickets are more complicated than we think. They are the result of a globalized economic context.
However, it’s worth keeping an eye on these developments: they directly impact the world of music streaming, the sector we’re so passionate about at Soundiiz!
