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Here are the top-earning tours for 2022

It’s been a tough year for the majority of touring artists, given the pressure to play live and spiraling inflation. But the upper UPPER tier of artists did just fine. Here’s who made what in 2022 (all figures in US dollars).

Billboard Top Tour Chart 2022
1. Bad Bunny – $373,463,379 (65 shows)
2. Elton John – $334,385,023 (84 shows)
3. Ed Sheeran – $246,287,916 (63 shows)
4. Harry Styles – $214,408,180 (71 shows)
5. Coldplay – $208,000,727 (40 shows)
6. The Rolling Stones – $179,349,815 (20 shows)
7. Red Hot Chili Peppers – $176,998,650 (31 shows)
8. Def Leppard and Motley Crue – $173,474,649 (35 shows)
9. Kenny Chesney – $135,046,047 (41 shows)
10. The Weeknd – $131,056,262 (19 shows)
(Via UCR)

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

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3 thoughts on “Here are the top-earning tours for 2022

  • LOL another moment for me to be completely out of touch. I feel like I’ve somehow never heard of Bad Bunny, but congrats to them.

    The greatest shows I saw this year were Trentmoller and Flaming Lips. The former just completely blew me away. I had a better idea of what to expect from Wayne Coyne.

    Reply
  • This is interesting but I think the real story would be how profitable each tour was. Elton played the most with 84 arena shows and averaged $3.98 million per show but the Stones played just 20 arena/stadium shows and average $8.97 million per show – both are amazing numbers but the difference is staggering. Elton’s tour grossed abut $200 million more than the Stones tour but he played over 4 times as many shows. I would think it is more expensive to mount a stadium show than an arena but the logistics of moving stuff around for 4 times as many shows probably more than offsets the higher expense of a Stadium show.

    Reply
    • +1 and thank you for doing the math. This feels like the right way to look at the data. I’d also be interested to see the average ticket price.

      Reply

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