The numbers are in on the biggest grossing tours of 2024

15 Dec 2024, 23:22 · louder

By Fraser Lewry
( Classic Rock )
published 15 December 2024

It's not just Taylor Swift making money out there

(Image credit: Bruce Springsteen: Harold Feng/Getty Images | Keith Richards: Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images | James Hetfield: Javier Bragado/Redferns)

Live music industry publication Pollstar has published its annual breakdown of touring income, and a number of rock acts feature in the Top 10 grossing performers worldwide.

In a list predictably headed by cultural phenomenon Taylor Swift – whose 2024 Eras tour dates pulled in more than a billion dollars in ticket sales – while Coldplay, Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones and Metallica also prompted fans to collectively part with hundreds of millions of dollars.

Coldplay were second in the global list, grossing $421,713.321. The band's Music of the Spheres World Tour is now the most successful of all time in terms of seats filled, with more than 10.3 million tickets sold since the first date in 2022. The band will finish the tour with 10 shows at London's Wembley Stadium in August 2025.

Fifth on the global list were Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, who played 44 shows over the year, selling 1,667,607 tickets across 44 dates for a gross total of more than $250 million, while the Rolling Stones weren't too far behind, raking in $235 million from just 18 shows. At number nine on the list were Metallica, who played 24 shows, collecting $179 million at the box office.

In the US alone, the Rolling Stones were at the top of the list, with their entire schedule taking place in the USA. Taylor Swift played just nine US shows in 2024 .

In other Pollsatar news, the biggest-grossing venue in the world has been confirmed as Sphere in Las Vegas, which only opened in 2023 and has played host to just four acts. In 2024 the venue grossed $367.2 million by selling 1,136,179 tickets to 70 residency shows by U2, Phish, Dead & Company and Eagles.

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Fraser Lewry
Online Editor, Classic Rock

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 38 years in music industry, online for 25. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.

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