Features
Pollstar 2024 Mid-Year Report: Record-Setting $3B+ Gross As Market Cools; Madonna Has No. 1 Tour
By Bob Allen and Andy Gensler
For the first time in two-and-a-half years, the live industry has returned to earth. The stratospheric post-pandemic concert exuberance that swept markets across the globe starting in the U.S. in the later half of 2021 and saw the concert business explode with continuous record-setting revenues, attendances and ticket prices is returning to a more traditional pattern of measured growth.
Pollstar’s global box-office results from the first two quarters of 2024 reflect these more moderate rises and falls in a year-to-year comparison to 2023, according to reported ticket sales figures for the 2024 Mid-Year Top 100 Worldwide Tours chart. This year, there are no wildly dramatic spikes up or down in percentage differences as there were in 2023 when the overall gross was a jaw-dropping 51.1 percent higher than the year previous and the average gross per show topped 2022’s figure by a massive 64.7 percent.
This year, no increase is larger than 17 percent, and there were also no significant decreases beyond 15 percent in any of the six metrics: total gross and tickets sold, average gross and tickets sold per show, and average ticket price and the number of reported shows. One would expect, to some degree, a more than measured decrease in some totals after the sizable Q2 figures in 2023 that included other double-digit leaps, including ticket sales jumping 37 percent over 2022 and average ticket sales total up 49 percent.
The year’s lower mid-year indices reflect more of a correction than a catastrophic decline. And 2023’s box-office success story followed a 2022 still in recovery with box-office results well under pre-COVID norms. Box-office totals for this year are still higher than all the mid-year figures in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic and a year that saw a continuation of steady, multiple-year growth in the live industry.
The Mid-Year 2024 Cool Down: Where The Live Business Is At
The worldwide gross for 2024 is one of three areas showing an increase compared to 2023, as sold-ticket revenue for the first time ever tops the $3 billion threshold in a mid-year recap. 2024’s record-setting gross total of $3.07 billion easily surpasses the 2023 total of $2.83 billion by 8.7 percent. Prior to 2023, the last gross topping $2 billion at mid-year was in 2019 as revenues fell sharply in the two COVID years (2020 and 2021) and 2022’s numbers reached only $1.87 billion.
Madonna’s impressive “Celebration Tour” topped 2024’s mid-year worldwide tally with a $179 million gross (see “Madonna Madonna’s ‘Celebration Tour‘ Tops 2024 Mid-Year”). Madge is followed closely by Bad Bunny, 2022’s chart topper, whose “Most Wanted Tour” grossed $174.6 million during the mid-year timeframe (Nov. 16, 2023 to May 15, 2024). He’s followed by another Latin artist (See the “Latin Explosion” ), albeit very different from the 30-year-old Puertorriqueño in Luis Miguel, a 56-year-old Mexican crooner whose tour grossed $169.4 million. U2’s literal and metaphorical groundbreaking residency at Sphere, “U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere” closed out the mid-year with $134.7 million. The rest of the diverse Top 10 includes Karol G ($111.2 million), Bruno Mars ($102.1 million), Coldplay ($100.4 million), SEVENTEEN ($74.5 million), Eagles ($69.4 million) and Nicki Minaj ($66.2 million).
Hip-hop and country are better represented in the Top 20 with Travis Scott (No. 12) and Drake (No. 16); country was led by Luke Combs (No. 11) and Zach Bryan (No. 13). Nate Bargatze (No. 15) led the comedy pack, while veterans Depeche Mode (No. 14), Paul McCartney (No. 18) and Billy Joel (No. 19), along with Latin group RBD (No. 17) and Olivia Rodrigo (No. 20), round out the Top 20.
The growth in grosses is evident throughout the top 100 tours with year-to-year increases in all four subgroups: The top 25 tours of the year racked up a cumulative gross of $1.85 billion in 2024, while last year’s top 25 grossed $1.54 billion. Tours ranked from No. 26 through No. 50 took in $587 million compared to $569.3 million in 2023. Then, grosses from tours ranked 51st through 75th totaled $377.4 million this year and $350.1 million one year ago. Finally, the last group of 25 tours grossed $256.4 million in 2024, compared to $244.1 million in 2023.
Also helping to increase 2024 mid-year’s total revenues was the volume of shows, which were up a significant 16.7 percent over 2023, which was on par with 2019’s show count. However, the 2024 growth in worldwide gross occurred without any estimated totals for top performers – unlike last year’s mid-year recap that featured estimates for a handful of major artists including Taylor Swift who led the list of touring artists at No. 1.
The third metric showing an upward jump is the average ticket price of $127.38. An all-time high, it beats the 2023 mid-year average price of $116.41 by 9.4 percent. It marks only the third year on record with an average ticket price over $100. The 2022 average was $105.55, while the 2019 average topped out at $92.42.
On the other end of the spectrum, the average gross per show in 2024 is one of the three categories with a percentage decrease compared to box-office numbers calculated for the 2023 mid-year. The $1.37 million average per show this year signifies a 6.9 percent drop compared to 2023’s $1.47 million average, which remains the highest on record. Yet, 2023 and 2024 are the only two years to top $1 million in gross averages per performance.
Worldwide ticket sales were also down in a year-to-year analysis, both overall as well as in averages per show, but the overall drop is the smallest of the decreases this year. For the first half of 2024, a total of 24,108,321 tickets were sold, while last year’s Q2 ticket total was 24,271,825 – a dip of only .7 percent. Furthermore, the total ticket counts in 2023 and 2024 are both significantly higher than the three prior years, and also higher than 2019’s ticket total of 22,278,187.
Finally, the average number of tickets sold per show is 10,767, which is down 14.9 percent compared to 2023’s average that totaled 12,655, which also remains the highest on record. Even though the percentage decrease this year in contrast to 2023 is the largest one in this recap, the 2024 ticket average is still higher than 2019’s average of 9,901, by 8.7 percent.
NORTH AMERICA
The North American mid-year box-office results show five of the six metrics with percentage increases compared to 2023. Most prominently, the overall gross, totaling $2.33 billion this year, reflects a healthy jump of 18.7 percent over 2023’s $1.96 billion. Likewise, the number of reported shows jumped 18.6 percent, and the number of tickets sold increased by 7.9 percent, totaling 17.6 million this year in contrast to 2023’s 16.32 million.
The average gross per show of $1,090,845 in North America had the smallest percentage increase, moving up only .1 percent compared to last year’s average of $1,089,596. The only drop goes to the average number of tickets sold — 8,252 per show this year, falling 9 percent from the 9,071 sold-ticket average in 2023.
The average ticket price in North America sees a continuation of a three-year increase from year to year, totaling $132.18 during the first half of 2024. Last year’s price averaged $120.11, and the 2022 average was $108.20, the first year it topped $100