Chart Scene: Trevor Noah Has Top LIVE75 Debut With Oceania Tour

Trevor Noah has the highest ranking on LIVE75 among the 16 touring artists making their debut on the chart this week. The comedian is No. 10 based on ticket sales at three performances on the Oceania leg of his “Off The Record” tour. All three shows were in Australian arenas, and together they moved a total of 29,504 tickets for a per-show ticket average of 9,834.

The first Australian date was Nov. 8 at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre with a sellout crowd of 7,217 and a $524,173 gross. Next, he played in Perth on the 11th at RAC Arena and entertained 9,044 fans, grossing $659,973. The final stop on the brief trek was a Nov. 20 event at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney with 13,243 in attendance. That performance earned $995,172 at the box office.

Prior to the run through Australia, Noah kicked off the Oceania leg of the tour in New Zealand at Auckland’s Spark Arena. The concert on Nov. 5 drew 7,524 fans and grossed $463,341. Produced by Sydney-based Bohm Presents, the tour also included a Nov. 14 show at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.

Noah was last on the road in Australia in 2018 with his “End of Days” tour, performing in the same cities: Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Sydney. At five performances (two in Sydney), he sold 31,246 tickets and grossed over $1.8 million between Aug. 23 and 29. Bohm Presents also promoted that tour.

On the Artist Power Index, three performers make their debut in this issue beginning with Chris Brown who enters the chart at No. 5. Much of the power behind his top 10 appearance comes from high scores in both Streaming and Airplay, as his Live score is based only on a single concert engagement. But it was a major stadium event with sellout crowds in attendance on back-to-back nights at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, Dec. 14-15.

Brown last toured in South Africa in 2015 during his “X” tour, performing in Johannesburg at the now-defunct Coca-Cola Dome that was renamed Ticketpro Dome the following year but ultimately closed as a concert venue in 2021. He also had a performance on that tour at Moses Mabhida Stadium’s People’s Park in Durban.

Also with his first appearance in the past quarter on the Artist Power Index is J. Cole who debuts at No. 26 based on one concert performance in New York City. The rapper played Madison Square Garden on Dec. 16 in celebration of the 10-year anniversary of his third studio album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive. Then, Lenny Kravitz also debuts on the chart at No. 48 after performing shows in November and December in seven Latin American countries as part of his “Blue Electric Light Tour.”

LIVE75 features a second consecutive No. 1 ranking by Coldplay, the highest-grossing band on Pollstar’s Top 200 Worldwide Touring Artists of 2024. This week marks the band’s seventh appearance at the top of the chart in 2024 and the 17th since launching the “Music of the Spheres World Tour,” now the best-attended tour of all time with more than 10.3 million tickets sold since it began in 2022.

The top ranking is based on the tour’s final three shows of the year, a three-night stint at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand, Nov. 13-16. With 169,079 tickets sold during the run, Coldplay’s per-show ticket average comes to 56,359, which scores the No. 1 position. The gross average of $6.43 million is also the highest on the chart, earning “Heavy Hitter” status for the band for a second week.

Also ranked in the top 10 on LIVE75, along with Noah and Coldplay, Dutch orchestra conductor and violinist André Rieu is the chart’s “Noise Maker” with the greatest move up in the rankings compared to the previous week. He lands at No. 9 after taking the No. 15 position one week earlier. On this chart, his ranking is based on a ticket sales average of 10,134 from 10 November performances on his 2024 tour.

The combined gross from all 10 shows is $9.5 million from 101,347 tickets sold at arenas in nine European countries. The highest venue gross among them was $1.38 million at MVM Dome in Budapest, Hungary, with a sellout crowd of 14,255 on Nov. 9. That attendance total is also the highest among all 10 performances during the November run.

Currently, Rieu, along with his Johann Strauss Orchestra, is wrapping up a six-show Christmas engagement at MECC in his hometown of Maastricht, Netherlands. At their December 2023 five-show engagement at the same venue, they performed for 57,015 fans and grossed $6.6 million. Multiple-show runs in Maastricht are also on record from 2019 and 2022. Rieu’s touring will resume in Europe in early 2025 with a performance at Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome on Jan. 11.