Chart Scene: Coldplay Tops LIVE75 With Latin American Sellouts

Coldplay is the highest-ranked headliner on LIVE75, debuting at No. 1 with the “Hot Shot” tour of the week after wrapping the second Latin American leg of the “Music of the Spheres” world tour. Multiple shows at three stadiums in Brazil capped the band’s run through five countries in South America which began in Brazil last September with an appearance at Rio de Janeiro’s “Rock in Rio” festival.

After the fall dates that included a massive 10-show engagement at Estadio Más Monumental (also known as River Plate Stadium) in Buenos Aires that grossed $49.7 million, the group returned to the continent this year and kicked off a three-week trek through Brazil on March 10.

With six concerts in São Paulo at Estádio Cícero Pompeu de Toledo, two shows at Curitiba’s Estádio Couto Pereira and three at Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos in Rio de Janeiro, the band sold a total of 736,439 tickets, averaging 66,949 per show – the highest ticket average among the 75 tours ranked on the chart.

Coldplay’s 11 shows in Brazil also racked up a $65.4 million gross which averages $5.9 million per night. That earns the band the “Heavy Hitter” classification as the tour with the highest gross average.

The six shows in São Paulo, March 10-18, earned $40.1 million in ticket revenue which is the tour’s third-best gross since beginning just over one year ago. The highest overall box-office haul was the whopping $49.7 million in Buenos Aires last fall with 10 shows from Oct. 25 through Nov. 8, while a six-night run at Wembley Stadium in London last August produced the second-highest gross of $49.2 million.

The two stadium performances in Curitiba, March 21-22, were attended by 85,776 fans with a gross totaling $8.13 million. Then, the three-show engagement in Rio, March 25-28, moved a total of 211,012 tickets and earned over $17.2 million at the box office.

Reported sales figures from the Live Nation-produced tour show that 4.5 million tickets have been sold at 75 stadium concerts since the tour began. Worldwide grosses surpass $407.7 million — already enough to be ranked among the highest-grossing tours on record, yet multiple-city treks are booked in both Europe and North America before the tour wraps this fall.

Following Coldplay on LIVE75 is country superstar Luke Combs who debuts on the chart following the launch of his new world tour. Recently nominated for five 2023 ACM Awards including Entertainer of the Year, Combs has 40 shows planned in North America, Oceania and Europe this year between March 25 and October 20.

He makes his first 2023 appearance on the chart, earning the No. 2 ranking based on an average of 52,378 sold tickets per show. Overall, he sold 209,514 tickets at four concerts in the first three stadiums on the schedule. And with ticket revenue from all three venues totaling $20.9 million, he averages a gross of $5.2 million per concert. It is the second-highest gross average on the chart.

Promoted by AEG Presents, the tour kicked off with a sold-out opening night performance at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on March 25 that drew a total of 59,084 fans. Gross totals recorded at the Dallas NFL stadium topped $5.9 million. Then, an April 1 event at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis followed with attendance logged at 55,399 for a gross total of $5.8 million.

Nashville’s Nissan Stadium hosted Combs on two consecutive nights, April 14 and 15. He set a new record for the number of tickets sold at a single performance as well as a record for back-to-back concerts. His April 15 show alone drew a crowd of 59,385, surpassing Kenny Chesney’s May 2022 headcount of 57,211, Eric Church’s 56,521 total in May 2019 and Taylor Swift’s 56,112 ticket count in August 2018. Likewise, his two-day ticket total of 95,031 smashes the 74,526-ticket record set by Garth Brooks with his two concerts in April of last year.