The following is a list of the most-attended concert tours with at least 3.5 million tickets sold, as well as the tours with the most tickets sold by year and the most tickets sold in a single day. The number of attendances is often considered to measure the success of a tour. However, the most-attended tours do not necessarily generate the largest profit, due to ticket pricing. Rankings of most successful tours are generally based on gross revenue instead of number of attendances. [1]
Pollstar and Billboard provide boxscores, which are the primary data showing the commercial performance of tours, but since not all concerts are reported to them, especially before 2000, the number of tickets may rely on estimations by other sources. Tours may score large total attendances because of their number of shows, which can span multiple calendar years.
Coldplay's Music of the Spheres World Tour was the first tour to sell more than 9, 10, 11 and 12 million tickets, [2] [3] [4] [5] achieving the feat over the course of 194 shows between 2022 and 2025. [4] Taylor Swift's Eras Tour later became the first run by a solo act to reach the first two milestones. [6] It also broke the record for most-attended tour in a single year, with 5.21 million people across 83 shows in 2024. [7] U2 earned the annual most-attended tour six times, the most for any act.
Tina Turner, Cher, Madonna, Swift and Pink are the only women with a tour attended by 3.5 million people or more. According to Pollstar and Billboard, Swift is the only female artist to have the largest tour attendance in a single year. [a] She also broke the record for fastest-selling tour, with 2.4 million tickets in a single day for the first American leg of the Eras Tour (2023–2024). Coldplay are the only act to sell a million tickets in two different days, achieving the feat with the first two European legs of the Music of the Spheres World Tour.
† | Indicates an ongoing concert tour |
Year | Artist | Tour title | Tickets sold | Source | Top-grossing tour of the year | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1997 | U2 | PopMart Tour | 1.70 million | Pollstar | Yes | [44] |
1999 | NSYNC | NSYNC in Concert | 1.80 million | Pollstar | No | [45] |
2000 | No Strings Attached Tour | 1.65 million | Pollstar | No | [45] | |
2001 | U2 | Elevation Tour | 2.06 million | Billboard | Yes | [46] |
2002 | Dave Matthews Band | Dave Matthews Band 2002 Tour | 1.35 million | Billboard | No | [47] |
2003 | The Rolling Stones | Licks Tour | 3.47 million | Billboard | Yes | [48] |
2004 | Prince | Musicology Live 2004ever | 1.47 million | Billboard | No | [49] |
2005 | U2 | Vertigo Tour | 3.00 million | Billboard | Yes | [50] |
2006 | The Rolling Stones | A Bigger Bang Tour | 3.50 million | Billboard | Yes | [51] |
2007 | The Police | The Police Reunion Tour | 1.85 million | Billboard | Yes | [52] |
2008 | Bon Jovi | Lost Highway Tour | 2.15 million | Billboard | No | [53] |
2009 | U2 | 360° Tour | 3.07 million | Billboard | Yes | [54] |
2010 | Bon Jovi | The Circle Tour | 1.90 million | Pollstar | Yes | [55] |
2011 | U2 | 360° Tour | 2.88 million | Billboard | Yes | [56] |
2012 | Bruce Springsteen · E Street Band | Wrecking Ball World Tour | 2.28 million | Pollstar | No | [57] |
2013 | Bon Jovi | Because We Can | 2.65 million | Pollstar | Yes | [58] |
2014 | One Direction | Where We Are Tour | 3.43 million | Pollstar | Yes | [59] |
2015 | On the Road Again Tour | 2.36 million | Pollstar | No | [60] | |
2016 | Coldplay | A Head Full of Dreams Tour | 2.67 million | Pollstar | No | [61] |
2017 | U2 | The Joshua Tree Tour 2017 | 2.71 million | Pollstar | Yes | [62] |
2018 | Ed Sheeran | ÷ Tour | 4.86 million | Pollstar | Yes | [63] |
2019 | 2.45 million | Pollstar | No | [64] | ||
2020 | Trans-Siberian Orchestra | Christmas Eve and Other Stories Tour | 0.88 million | Pollstar | No | [65] |
2021 | Harry Styles | Love On Tour | 0.67 million | Pollstar | No | [66] |
2022 | Coldplay | Music of the Spheres World Tour | 3.80 million | Pollstar | Yes | [67] |
2023 | Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour | 4.35 million [a] | Pollstar | Yes | [68] |
2024 | 5.21 million [a] | Pollstar | Yes | [7] |
* | Indicates previous record holder for the fastest-selling tour |
Year | Artist | Tour title | Tickets sold | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 | Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour | 2.4 million | First North American leg | [69] |
2005 | Robbie Williams | Close Encounters Tour * | 1.6 million | [70] | |
2024 | AC/DC | Power Up Tour | 1.5 million | First European leg | [71] |
2022 | Coldplay | Music of the Spheres World Tour | 1.4 million | Second European leg | [72] |
2025 | Oasis | Oasis Live '25 Tour | 1.4 million | First British leg | [73] |
2010 | Take That | Progress Live | 1.3 million | [74] | |
2017 | U2 | The Joshua Tree Tour 2017 | 1.1 million | [75] | |
2016 | Guns N' Roses | Not in This Lifetime... Tour | 1.1 million | [76] | |
2000 | NSYNC | No Strings Attached Tour * | 1.0 million | [77] | |
2016 | Bruno Mars | 24K Magic World Tour | 1.0 million | [78] | |
2021 | Coldplay | Music of the Spheres World Tour | 1.0 million | First European leg | [79] |
2024 | Shakira | Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour | 0.9 million | First Latin American leg | [80] |
2024 | Coldplay | Music of the Spheres World Tour | 0.8 million | Third British leg | [81] |
2023 | RBD | Soy Rebelde Tour | 0.8 million | [82] | |
2024 | Coldplay | Music of the Spheres World Tour | 0.7 million | Third North American leg | [83] |
2017 | Ed Sheeran | ÷ Tour | 0.7 million | Oceanian leg | [84] |
2025 | Bad Bunny | Debí Tirar Más Fotos World Tour | 0.6 million | Spanish leg | [85] |
2023 | Madonna | The Celebration Tour | 0.6 million | [86] | |
2009 | AC/DC | Black Ice World Tour | 0.5 million | [87] |
Cher embarked on her three-year, 326-show Living Proof: The Farewell Tour […] Her average audience was 10,800, totaling 3.5 million attendees…