The following is a list of the most-attended concert tours in history, with at least 3.5 million tickets sold. There are also two more lists: most attended tours annually since 1997 and tours with most tickets sold in a single day.
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. The success of a tour is measured by both the number of attendances and its gross revenue, since it’s not necessary that the most-attended tours generate the largest profit due to ticket pricing.
Coldplay was the first act to sell over 10 million tickets on the same concert run, achieving the feat with the Music of the Spheres World Tour (2022–2025). The band is also the only act to sell a million tickets in a single day on two different occasions. U2 is the only act to achieve highest annual tour attendance six times.
Tina Turner, Cher, Madonna, Taylor Swift and Pink are the only women to achieve tours attended by 3.5 million people or more. Swift holds multiple records: first solo act to reach 10 million attendance (The Eras Tour between 2023 and 2024); highest annual tour attendance (5.21 million in 2024); sole woman to have the highest annual tour attendance, achieving it twice (2023 and 2024); and most tour tickets sold in a single day (2.4 million).
Most-attended tours Over 5 million tickets sold +Keys Indicates an ongoing tour Indicates the tour had sold the most tickets up to that point
+Tours with over 5 million tickets sold Rank Tickets sold Artist Tour title Year Shows Averageattendance 1 Coldplay Music of the Spheres World Tour 2022–2025 223 2 2023–2024 149 3 2017–2019 255 4 2022–2025 169 5 After Hours til Dawn Tour 2022–2026 158 6 U2 360° Tour 2009–2011 110 7 Dire Straits On Every Street Tour 1991–1992 229 8 Guns N' Roses Use Your Illusion Tour 1991–1993 192 Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York. p. 372 9 Voodoo Lounge Tour 1994–1995 128 10 2014–2017 390 11 Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour 1989–1990 115 12 Farewell Yellow Brick Road 2018–2023 330 13 Pink Floyd 1994 110 14 1996–1998 220 15 Coldplay 2016–2017 114 16 Guns N' Roses Not in This Lifetime... Tour 2016–2019 175 17 Metallica M72 World Tour 2023–2026 86 18 U2 Zoo TV Tour 1992–1993 157 19 Extraterrestrial World Tour 2021–2025 145
20 Rammstein Stadium Tour 2019–2024 141 21 E Street Band Born in the U.S.A. Tour 1984–1985 156 22 Love On Tour 2021–2023 169
Over 3.5 million tickets sold
+Tours with over 3.5 million tickets sold Rank Tickets sold Artist Tour title Year Shows Averageattendance 23 E Street Band 2023–2025 Tour 2023–2025 129 24 AC/DC Black Ice World Tour 2008–2010 165 25 Pink Summer Carnival 2023–2024 97 26 Bridges to Babylon Tour 1997–1998 108 27 2005–2007 147 28 U2 Vertigo Tour 2005–2006 131 29 Bad World Tour 1987–1989 125 30 HIStory World Tour 1996–1997 82 31 2016–2019 233 32 Pink Floyd 1987–1990 198 33 Metallica WorldWired Tour 2016–2019 159 34 Mayday Life Tour 2017–2019 122 35 2010–2013 220 36 Break Every Rule World Tour 1987–1988 218 37 U2 PopMart Tour 1997–1998 93 38 Dangerous World Tour 1992–1993 69 39 E Street Band Wrecking Ball World Tour 2012–2013 125 40 Madonna Sticky & Sweet Tour 2008–2009 85 41 Licks Tour 2003–2004 117 42 Cher Living Proof: The Farewell Tour 2002–2005 326
Most-attended tours by year
+Most-attended tours annually Year Tickets sold Artist Tour title Shows Averageattendance Highest-grossingtour of the year 1995 Voodoo Lounge Tour 84 1996 121 1997 U2 PopMart Tour 70 Note: It cites figures from Amusement Business (Billboard). 1998 Bridges to Babylon Tour 82 1999 NSYNC NSYNC in Concert 121 2000 Twenty Four Seven Tour 108 2001 U2 Elevation Tour 106 2002 Dave Matthews Band 2002 Tour 67 2003 Licks Tour 115 2004 Prince Musicology Live 2004ever 99 2005 U2 Vertigo Tour 90 2006 110 2007 Reunion Tour 66 2008 Madonna Sticky & Sweet Tour 58 2009 U2 360° Tour 44 2010 Bon Jovi 80 2011 U2 360° Tour 44 2012 E Street Band Wrecking Ball World Tour 81 2013 Bon Jovi Because We Can 102 2014 One Direction Where We Are Tour 69 2015 On the Road Again Tour 85 2016 Coldplay 60 2017 U2 50 2018 94 2019 51 2020 Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas Eve and Other Stories Tour 91 2021 Love On Tour 39 2022 Coldplay Music of the Spheres World Tour 64 2023 60 2024 80 2025 Coldplay Music of the Spheres World Tour 50
Most tickets sold in a day
+Tours with the most tickets sold in a day Year Tickets sold Artist Tour title Location 2023 North America 2026 EuropeNorth America 2005 Close Encounters Tour Europe 2024 AC/DC Power Up Tour Europe 2022 Coldplay Music of the Spheres World Tour Europe 2025 Oasis Oasis Live '25 Tour Europe 2010 Take That Progress Live Europe 2017 U2 EuropeNorth America 2021 Coldplay Music of the Spheres World Tour Europe 2016 Guns N' Roses Not in This Lifetime... Tour Europe 2016 24K Magic World Tour EuropeNorth America 2000 NSYNC No Strings Attached Tour North America 2024 Shakira Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour North AmericaSouth America 2024 Coldplay Music of the Spheres World Tour Europe 2023 RBD North AmericaSouth America 2017 Oceania 2024 Coldplay Music of the Spheres World Tour North America 2025 Bad Bunny Debí Tirar Más Fotos World Tour Europe 2023 Madonna EuropeNorth America 2009 AC/DC Black Ice World Tour Oceania
See also List of most-attended concerts List of highest-grossing live music artists List of highest-grossing concert tours List of highest-grossing concert tours by women List of highest-grossing concert tours by Latin artists List of highest-grossing concert series at a single venue
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