2024 Concert Market Rankings: No. 1 New York

Fuhgeddaboudit!
New York City Again Dominates
Concert Market Rankings

Reported Market Gross  |  $912,581,848
Reported Ticket Sales  | 8,581,899
Average Ticket Price |  $106.34

The city that never sleeps also never sleeps on concerts, especially this year. In 2023, the New York City concert market’s gross revenues hit $912 million, according to Pollstar Boxoffice Reports, making it, for the second year in a row, the survey’s number-one concert market. That figure represents 15% growth over last year’s tally.

Billy Joel’s historic monthly residency at Madison Square Garden topped the chart bringing in a massive $33.3 million over the course of 11 shows. Not far behind was Beyoncé’s “Renaissance Tour,” which did two nights at MetLife Stadium in nearby East Rutherford, New Jersey yielding $33M, nearly equaling Joel’s gross. Metallica also played two MetLife shows generating $20.8 million. Drake appeared twice on the survey: once for his four-night stint at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, grossing $18M, and three nights at MSG bringing in nearly $14 million. Taken together, Drake’s “It’s All A Blur Tour,” which featured some of the year’s most stunning production, had stadium-like numbers with $32 million grossed at five arena shows, which would place him third on the chart.

On any given day, Gotham is a smorgasbord of live entertainment delights and the survey’s top shows reflect the market’s diversity. Other acts in the top 20 include such disparate artists as former Mexican TV stars RBD (two MSGs), Singaporean singer/songwriter JJ Lin (two Barclays), comedian Dave Chappelle (four MSGs), BTS’er Suga (two UBS Arenas) and octogenarian Barry Manilow (five Radio City’s).

On Pollstar’s 2023 Year-End Charts, the NYC market’s top stadium, arena, theater and club, respectively, were as follows: MetLife ($108M gross; 641K tickets), Madison Square Garden ($254M; 1.97M tix), Radio City Music Hall ($123M; 1.25M tix) and The Paramount in Huntington, Long Island ($12.7M; 225.8K tix).

Pollstar reached out to Michael Dorf at City Winery, capacity 350 seated/900 standing, to get his take on the market. “2023 was by far our biggest year in terms of ticket sales and consumption sales,” the longtime club promoter said. “It could have been much much better to start making up for what has been a horrible 4 years and always a challenging industry at our level. “

Dorf outlined some of those challenges. “We are still above 10% no-shows on customer tickets which is higher than pre-pandemic and a financially painful reality of 30 to 40 empty pre-paid reserved seats where nobody is drinking and eating. There continues to be competition for talent and increased talent fees, coupled with a much higher cancelation rate without any excuses. This also is a post-pandemic trend whereby an artist, without any reason, will cancel or most likely want to postpone a show two weeks out. While the consumer and artist shift their date, we the venue, are left with a hole in our calendar and significant loss of income.”

In venue moves, The Knitting Factory (which Dorf originally founded and no longer works with) moved out of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and into the old Pyramid Club on Avenue A and partnered with Baker Falls. The sprawling Knockdown Center in Ridgewood, Queens, 3,200 capacity, ramped up its bookings. Festival mainstay Governors Ball finally seemed to find a perfect space in Flushing Meadows. And in July, Post Malone played an interesting gig: Outside the new TSX Broadway building in Times Square atop a billboard.

Next year, with the continuation of major tours and new ones added daily, looks to be as robust save for the absence of Billy Joel, whose historic run at MSG unfortunately ends July 24.