Pollstar, a music industry trade publication, has published all of the stats for the Top 10 Worldwide Top Touring Artists of 2024. This reveals the ticket totals for rock and metal artists among that top 10, including Metallica, The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band.
The comprehensive breakdown includes the amount of money earned from gross ticket sales, average ticket price, average tickets sold per show, total number of tickets sold in 2024, the average gross per show and the number of shows performed throughout the year.
Rock and metal occupied three spots on the Top 10, with the highest overall rank being No. 5 among the trio of aforementioned acts.
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No. 1, as if there was any doubt, is Taylor Swift. The pop superstar grossed over $1 billion in ticket sales for her 80 2024 shows. She sold over five million tickets with an average gross of $13,042,769, which was enough to earn second place in that category, behind The Rolling Stones.
See the ticket stats for Springsteen, the Stones and Metallica directly below.
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band 2024 Tour Stats
Rank: No. 5Gross: $251,296,432Average Ticket Price: $150.69Average Tickets Sold Per Show: 37,900Total Tickets: 1,667,607Average Gross: $5,711,282Shows Played: 44
Jon Laundau, who has been managing Springsteen for 50 years, tells Pollstar, “The show itself, his performance capacity, has remained so high, and the level of authenticity is so real. If you want to see live, real live, what you see is what you get, that’s what he does, and the number of people who are still doing that just continues to decline.”
“I see things all the time I think are fantastic, but for us, he has a style, a point of view and an approach that you’ve got to be there to experience it,” Laundau continues, “There is no substitute. And I can tell you that the same 1,000 percent that he puts into that you saw the first time you saw him 50 years ago, it’s exactly what he puts into it now. It’s just who he is.
“Bruce’s goal is going out there to do a show you never forget.”
2019 Stand Up for Heroes Benefit in New York
The Rolling Stones 2024 Tour Stats
Rank: No. 6Gross: $235,007,193Average Ticket Price: $277.28Average Tickets Sold Per Show: 47,100Total Tickets: 8470,00Average Gross: $13,059,844Shows Played: 18
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Metallica 2024 Tour Stats
Rank: No. 9Gross: $179,373,637.40Average Ticket Price: $119.64Average Tickets Sold Per Show: 62,512Total Tickets: 1,500,311Average Gross: $7,479,043Shows Played: 24
Metallica’s longtime manager, Q Prime’s Cliff Burnstein, tells Pollstar, “We go out every year and we generally play around 25 shows a year worldwide, and it’s not tied to a new album or anything else, so we’re consistent in that regard. In any one year, somebody is going out on a new album and starting their cycle, and will always rank higher than we do, because we don’t play as many shows. And that’s by design. We decided collectively for the mental and physical health of the band that this is the best way to tour.”
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NOT INCLUDED: The definition of rock is incredibly broad today and, in this list, we’ve elected not to include pop/rock acts such as Imagine Dragons, Maroon 5, Twenty One Pilots, 5 Seconds of Summer, Coldplay, Goo Goo Dolls, Gym Class Heroes and Train.
Gallery Credit: Joe DiVita
