Madonna Scores Highest-Grossing Tour of 2024 So Far as Live Music Growth Settles Down

Madonna has the highest-grossing worldwide tour of 2024 thus far, according to Pollstar’s mid-year report, thanks to the success of her “Celebration Tour.” With average ticket prices of $208.85, the pop icon had an average gross of $2,794,007 with 13,378 average tickets sold, making for a total of 856,247 in ticket sales across 34 reported shows out of 65 dates.

Pollstar‘s mid-year report examines the industry on a wider scale, and after several years of record-setting ticket sales in the post-pandemic touring boom, the growth of live music has settled down in the first half of 2024. There were no major surges or declines in percentage differences compared to years prior. In 2023, overall gross was 51.1 percent higher than in 2022, and was 64.7 percent higher in average gross per show. But in 2024, there were no spikes larger than 17 percent, or decreases beyond 15 percent.

Of course, there are a few things that should be noted when examining Pollstar’s results — most notably, the absence of Taylor Swift, whose blockbuster “Eras” tour does not report its tour figures. Despite that, in December, Pollstar reported that her “Eras Tour” was the highest-grossing trek of all time and the first tour ever to cross the $1 billion threshold. It is likely that Swift, whose European leg of the “Eras” tour launched on May 9, will end up leading this year as well.

Not all promoters or tours report their numbers, or all of their numbers, to Pollstar, which was acquired by Irving Azoff and Tim Lieweke’s Oak View Group in 2017, but its statistics certainly reveal a large number of trends.

Bad Bunny trails closely behind Madonna with $174.6 million from his “Most Wanted Tour,” while Luis Miguel follows him with $169.4 million, U2 ranks at No. 4 with $135 million from the band’s Sphere residency and Karol G rounds out the top five with $111 million. The top 10 continues with Bruno Mars ($102 million), Coldplay ($100 million), Seventeen ($74 million), Eagles ($69 million) and Nicki Minaj ($66 million).

On a macro scale, overall global gross in 2024 topped $3 billion for the first time, up from $2.83 billion in 2023. Last year had exponential growth over 2022, which touted a global gross of $1.87 billion. Average gross in 2024 was slightly down from last year, with $1.37 million versus $1.47 million, while ticket sales remained nearly the same (24.1 million in 2024 versus 24.3 million in 2023). Average ticket prices increased from $116 to $127 year over year, even though average tickets sold per show dipped from 12,655 to 10,767.

In North America, Bad Bunny topped the total gross tally with $174.6 million. Madonna sits behind him with $148 million, followed by U2 ($135 million), Luis Miguel ($100 million) and Eagles ($69 million). Overall gross in the region totaled $2.33 billion, a boost of 18.7 percent over last year’s $1.96 billion. Total tickets sold was up 17.6 million compared to 2023’s 16.32 million, while average number of tickets sold dipped from 2023’s 9,071 to 8,252.

The report comes amid a year of strong ticket sales contrasted by reports of major artists canceling their tours. In the past few months, the Black Keys nixed their international arena tour, while Jennifer Lopez followed suit in the wake of rebranding her tour from focusing on her new album to a greatest hits show.