There is a new champion when it comes to the act with the highest-grossing rock tour. You might be surprised.
When it comes to the highest-grossing rock tours, we usually talk about Guns N’ Roses (Not in This Lifetime tour), U2 (360 Tour), and The Rolling Stones (A Bigger Band tour). But there’s a new act at the top of the rock tour category. It’s…Coldplay.
I know, I know. Coldplay isn’t exactly “rock” in the same sense as U2, The Stones, and GNR, but Billboard wants to categorize them that way.
Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres tour has been running for 153 shows (so far) since March 2022. In that time, the band has sold 8.8 million tickets and grossed–ready for this?–US$945,700,000. That’s good for second place on the list of all-time tours. Only Taylor Swift has grossed more than US$1,039,263,762, so far, And it took her just 60 gigs to do that.
So now the top ten biggest-grossing concert tours looks like this (all figures in USD):
- Taylor Swift: The Eras Tours: $1,039,263,762
- Coldplay: Music of the Spheres: $945,700,000
- Elton John, Farewell Yellow Brick Road: $939,100,000 from 330 shows)
- Ed Sheeran, Divide Tour: $776,200,000 (adjusted to $925,014,604 in 2023 dollars) from 255 shows
- U2, 360 Tour: $736,421,586 (adjusted to $997,437,284 from 110 shows
- Harry Styles, Love On Tour: $617,325,000 from 169 shows
- Guns N’ Roses, Not in This Lifetime: $584,200,000 (adjusted to $696,203,983) from 158 shows
- Beyonce, Renaissance World Tour: $579,879,268 from 56 shows
- Rolling Stones, A Bigger Bang: $558,255,524 (adjusted to $820,315,772) from 144 shows
- Rolling Stones, No Filter Tour: $546,500,000 (adjusted to $614,485,325) from 58 shows
And just for fun, wanna guess which act has grossed the most per show? Tay-Tay. And it’s not even close: $17,321,063. Coldplay brings in *just* $6,181,046,
