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The humble tour has always been one of rock music artists’ most reliable revenue streams. Even in a world where you can access the entire discography of a band at the click of a button, fans still want the experience of being up-close-and-personal with their favourite artists, or at least as personal as they can get in a gigantic stadium.
This enduring hunger for live music has led many groups to refocus their attention on touring, emphasising theatricality and spectacle to ensure the best turnout, and the more money an artist starts with, the grander the tour.
The list below is a look at some of the most successful tours of all time. Tours that earned not just millions but hundreds of millions, dizzying amounts of money that, in today’s increasingly unprofitable music industry, point to the financial benefits of iconic status.
From The Eagles and Bruce Springsteen to The Rolling Stones and U2, these are the highest-grossing rock tours of all time.
After what The Eagles assumed was their final performance in 1980, the group said it would take hell freezing over to get them to play together again. 14 years later, the band decided to reunite, naming their tour in a nod to those ill-judged words.
Initially planned to last just six weeks, the tour ended up lasting for two years, stretching from July 2013 to 2015 and grossing $253 million in the process. That’s 2 million tickets sold across 147 shows.
Comprising 133 shows in 26 countries across North America, South America, Europe, and Australia, Bruce Springsteen and The E-Street Band’s Wrecking Ball World Tour was the group’s first outing without founding member Clarence Clemons, who died on June 18th, 2011.
The venture stretched from March 18th, 2012 to September 21st, 2013 and saw Springsteen attempt to fill the void left by Clemons by adding a full horn section, which featured Clarence’s nephew Jake Clemons. With three additional backing singers and a percussionist, it was the largest lineup E-Street band fans had ever seen, totalling seventeen members. By the end of the tour, Springsteen and company had raked in $340.6 million from 124 shows.
Marking the group’s 30th anniversary, The Police Reunion Tour began in May 2007 to near-universally positive reviews (despite drummer Stewart Copeland’s complaints), concluding in August 2008 with a grand finale at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
The venture saw The Police perform on a simple split-level oval stage, encircled with blue lights, above which seven LED screens were placed. When the concert tickets went on sale, many dates sold out in minutes. Meanwhile, tickets for the entire British leg, the group’s first performances on home turf in 24 years, sold out in 30 minutes flat.
Held in support of their tenth studio album Hardwired…To Self-Destruct, Metallica’s WorldWired Tour was the group’s first worldwide tour since World Magnetic six years earlier.
Kicking off with a show in Puerto Rico on October 26th, 2016 and ending with a gig in Mannheim, Germany, on August 25th, 2019, the WorldWired Tour grossed $426.9 million from 139 shows and saw the group perform at the 59th annual Grammy Awards on February 12th, 2017.
While not technically a rock tour, Madonna’s Sticky And Sweet Tour deserves a mention because it remains the highest-grossing tour by a female artist. Held in support of her Hard Candy album, The outing began in Cardiff on August 23rd, 2008 and culminated with a show in Tel Aviv on September 2nd, 1009.
In today’s cash, the venture made $497 million. However, it was not without its controversies. The ‘Get Stupid’ video, which compared the then-presidential candidate John McCain to Hitler, attracted much criticism from the Republican party, while a statment the singer made about Romani discrimination in Romania in 2009 was met with boos and jeers from the crowd.
From September 15th 2010 to September 21st, 2013, founding member of Pink Floyd Roger Waters took to the road to perform the classic 1979 album The Wall in full.
It was the first time a member of the Floyd had attempted the feat in 20 years, not since the group performed the album live in Berlin on July 21st, 1990. The North American leg alone earned Waters $89.5 million from 56 concerts, and by the end of the venture, it was the third highest-grossing tour at the time.
AC/DC’s Black ice Tour was the group’s final outing with founding member Malcolm Young. The venture began in Pennsylvania on October 28th, 2008 and ended in a swirl of distortion on June 28th, 2010, in Bilbao, Spain.
By the end of the tour, the group had played over 160 shows to approximately 4.9 million fans. In total, ACDC earned $441 million dollars in ticket sales, adding up to around $518 million today.
The highly-anticipated Guns ‘N’ Roses reunion featuring the classic lineup of Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan kicked off at the group’s former watering hole, The Troubadour, in Hollywood on April 1st, 2016. It ended with a concert at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas on November 2nd, 2019, by which time the band had raked in $585 million.
Just before the band’s performance at the Coachella Festival’s first weekend, on April 16th, 2016, it was revealed that Axl Rose would be joining AC/DC to fill in as lead vocalist for the final dates of the bands Rock or Bust Tour. Brian Johnson was forced to leave the tour early due to a risk of hearing loss. AC/DC’s Angus Young guested with the band during their Coachella set to perform cuts ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ and ‘Riff Raff’.
To date, no Rolling Stones tour has outsold 2005’s A Bigger Bang Tour, which kicked off in 2005 and ended two years later in 2007. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts hit the road on August 10th, starting with a surprise show in Toronto.
The group then set off for Boston, where the tour began in earnest at Fenway Park on August 21st. The final show took place at London’s o2 arena on August 26th, 2007. Somewhere in between those two dates, Keith Richards managed to fall from a coconut tree in Fiji. His injuries meant that six concerts had to be pulled from the schedule, costing the group £1 million a show.
On June 30th, 2009, Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton kicked off their 360° Tour with a concert at Camp Npu Stadium in Barcelona, marking the beginning of what would turn out to be the highest-grossing concert by a rock group.
Held in support of their album No Line On The Horizon, the tour immediately outsold all of the group’s previous outings. Lasting until July 30th 2011, the extensive world tour saw the group take to the biggest stage set ever constructed, allowing the group to be seen in 360°. The venture, which wound up with a final show in Moncton, Canada, saw U2 perform to 7.2 million people in total.
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