U2's $56.5 Million Month.
The band is the first act to lead Billboard's Boxscore Top Tours for February....without actually touring.
U2 is clearly the breaking new ground and setting earnings records with single-venue residencies.
U2’s total Sphere residency, from September 29, 2023 through the last show on March 2, 2024, brought in $244.5 million with 663,000 tickets over 40 shows.
The latest run from January 26 - March 2, brought in just north of $55 million from just 10 shows and 166,000 tickets sold, meaning just those 10 shows brought in 22% of the total $244 million overall (actually it’s exactly 22.9508197%).
The 166,000 tickets sold for just 10 shows is 25% of the total tickets sold for the entire run (actually it’s 25.0377074%). U2’s numbers are impressive, but there’s other artist posting string numbers. Granted, they are incurring the expenses of producing a tour that moves from venue to venue, but lets look at some other artists on the Top Tours list for perspective.
Of the top grossing tours in February 2024 (the latest data available) Pink was second to U2 holding down the 6th, 8th and 10th spots in Top Boxscores with 437k total attendance over 9 shows for a total of $48.3 million.
Pink played for 271k more fans with one less show than U2, but she was still $8.2 million behind U2 in gross earnings, and U2 didn’t pack up and go anywhere.
In her Australia run, Pink brought in $9.8 million on February 9-10 in Sydney playing for 78.5k fans, $11 million in two days on February 16-17 in Brisbane, Australia where she drew 94.6K fans and capped it off with an impressive $13.2 million on February 23-24 in Melbourne for 124k fans.
Coldplay was $39.6 million behind U2 and holds the number 3 slot on Top Boxscores with their two shows on February 3-4 in Bangkok for 106k fans bringing in a total of $16.9 million.
Billy Joel had a great February as well with his one night stadium stand on February 24 in Tampa, FL. Joel played for 54.5k fans with a total gross of $13.2 million. Personally, I think that’s pretty impressive that in just one show Joel grossed 23% of U2’s total gross over 10 shows. Joel’s one night attendance of 54.5k is 32% of U2’s 166k they played for over 10 shows.
Still, The Material Girl, Madonna, came in 5th with $31.4 million playing for 146k fans in 10 shows.
Ed Sheeran was 6th at $31.1 million with 213k fans in attendance over 6 shows.
The Eagles hold the number 9 slot of top tours bringing in $22.9 million with a total attendance of 83.8k over 7 shows while Bad Bunny holds the 10th place spot with $19.5 million gross with 74.9k fans in just 5 shows.
These are all impressive numbers and U2 has clearly set another standard that we’ll have to watch to see if upcoming residencies by Dead & Company and Phish can get close to with shows slated at Sphere later this year.
I do have to ask, is it that U2 can have that draw/success even if they hit the road, or was the band assisted with attendance by the lure of the amazing venue?
Were you one of the 166k that attended the U2 Sphere residency, or any of the top 10 tours?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Top Tours, attendance, show notes, etc… in the comments.
Thanks again for reading and being here, and don’t forget to listen to some music or better yet, make music because music makes you smarter.
