Benito Does It Again: Bad Bunny Follows Record-Setting Run With Impressive Arena Tour

2024 Top 10 Worldwide Tours
No. 7 Bad Bunny
Gross: $210,903,805
Average Ticket Price: $279.98
Average Tickets Sold Per Show: 15,373
Total Tickets: 753,287
Average Gross: $4,304,159

Pollstar’s 2024 year end issue is chock-full of content (this one included) that mentions Taylor Swift and deservedly so. The singer-songwriter accomplished what no other artist has ever done in crossing the $1 billion mark in just one year, but it was only two years ago when another artist shocked the live entertainment industry and achieved what no one could have imagined, especially as the world transitioned to living with COVID-19.

That artist was Bad Bunny, who reached legendary status as a performer in 2022 by grossing $435.3 million in a calendar year with an arena tour followed by a stadium run, besting Ed Sheeran’s 2018 “Divide Tour” haul of $432.4 million.

Two years later, the Puerto Rican game-changer continues to shine with a massively successful “Most Wanted Tour,” a 49-date sold-out arena trek that grossed $210,903,805 off 753,287 tickets. The tour placed seventh on Pollstar’s Year End Top 200 Worldwide Tours Chart, ahead of stars like Zach Bryan (see page 79) and Madonna (see page 81). Bad Bunny was one of two Latin stars to crack the top 10, the other being Luis Miguel.

That type of demand calls for stadiums, but the artist, his manager Noah Assad, tour promoter Live Nation and UTA agent Jbeau Lewis felt it was better for the artist to go back to basics and deliver something more intimate. The move was in line with Bad Bunny’s 2023 hit album Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana, which was an introspective exercise and a return to the genre that made him a star.

“Bad Bunny’s evolution as an artist is what sets him apart,” Hans Schafer, Live Nation senior vice president of global touring, told Pollstar. “For the ‘Most Wanted Tour,’ he shifted gears creatively, going back to his roots with an all-trap album. This was a deliberate move to connect with his day one fans, and the intimacy of arenas was the perfect setting for this.”

It turned out to be the right play for everyone involved. Bad Bunny’s average ticket price of $279.98 was only topped by U2 ($352.86), Garth Brooks ($350), Lady Gaga ($309.11) and the Eagles ($293.65), proving that demand for the star is as high as ever. The Latin artist’s meteoric rise in 2022 subjected him to scrutiny, especially in the online space, and that inspired him to take a walk down memory lane in his latest LP.

At every show this year, he took the time to reintroduce himself to the crowd using his real name, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, reminding his fans that he’s still the guy from the barrio of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico.

“The biggest takeaway [from the tour] was the importance of staying true to the artist’s vision,” Schafer said. “Bad Bunny isn’t just a performer — he’s a storyteller, and this tour was an extension of his narrative. We learned that fans will show up in massive numbers if you give them an authentic experience, even in smaller venues.”

Bad Bunny’s success on the live circuit wasn’t only beneficial to his Latin music colleagues but also to artists of all genres, showing that nothing is impossible in the music business, even during a time when the live biz was still reeling from the effects of shutdowns as a result of the pandemic. Latin music is now mainstream and a force in live entertainment for a myriad of reasons, and he is definitely one of them.

“We’re in this really generationally special period in Latin music right now where it’s never been easier to consume music,” Lewis told Pollstar earlier this year when talking about his clients and the state of Latin music. “The demand to do things in real life has never been higher, whether it’s because of the pandemic or everyone spends too much of their lives behind a screen and they want to do real things. The economics of our business are syncing up because we finally figured out how to price tickets. And I think it’s resulting in this perfect storm of the live music business.”