Concert Market Rankings 2025: Boxoffice Totals Increase In Year-To-Year Contrast

One of the annual features of Pollstar’s final issue of the year is the ranking of the top 100 U.S. markets based on box-office success at live events in each city and its outlying areas. In a year-to-year comparison to 2023, the results reflect upward movement across the board in three primary box-office metrics: gross, number of sold tickets and number of shows reported.

In 2024, the cumulative gross from the top 100 markets reached $9.22 billion, reflecting an increase of 4.37% compared to 2023’s $8.84 billion gross. The number of tickets sold this year is 96.8 million, topping last year’s 94.3 million by 2.68%. Then, the number of reported shows is 36,685, an increase of 10.69%. In 2023, 33,141 shows were reported in the top 100 markets.

Eight of the markets retain their 2023 ranking for another year including New York City at the top of the chart, No. 1 for the third year in a row. (See page 30) Among the highest-grossing events in the New York metropolitan area was a two-show engagement by The Rolling Stones at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, May 23 and 26. The band racked up $29.2 million from 105,124 sold tickets. Also in New York, Billy Joel was a top grosser earning $39.3 million from the final nine shows of his monthly residency at Madison Square Garden.

Rounding out the top five are four markets that also ranked in the top five last year. Las Vegas moves up one position to land at No. 2, followed by Los Angeles, third on the list after trading places with Vegas. Boston (Manchester) and Chicago also swapped positions, charting at No. 4 and No. 5, respectively, in 2024.

Three other markets in the top 10 remain in the same position for a second consecutive year. The first is San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose at No. 6, followed by Washington, D.C. (Hagerstown) at No. 7 and Dallas-Fort Worth, ranked No. 10. Grosses from the San Francisco Bay Area increased by 8.23% in 2024, yet the Washington grosses dropped slightly by less than 1%. However, Washington’s venues reported 24.18% more shows in 2024, while the show count in the Bay Area increased 18%. In Dallas-Fort Worth, grosses decreased by 6.7% and the number of shows by 1.5%. Similarly, ticket sales rose in both the Bay Arena and D.C. but decreased in the DFW metroplex.

The other markets repeating for a second year with the same ranking are Tampa-St. Petersburg (Sarasota) at No. 16, Raleigh-Durham (Fayetteville) at No. 30, Cincinnati at No. 40 and Savannah at No. 83.

Changes in position, both positive and negative, showed improvement in 2024 with 48 markets scoring a higher ranking, compared to last year when 42 markets moved up the chart. And the markets that dropped in the rankings were fewer this year at 39, whereas last year, 45 markets showed a decline in their ranked position.

As the greatest gainer on the chart, Buffalo (No. 42) moves up 28 positions, the most of any market in 2024. (See page 31) That is similar to the result seen last year when Spokane was the greatest gainer with a 29-position jump. Then, on the other end of the spectrum, two markets dropped 26 positions in 2024: Memphis (No. 85) and Lincoln-Hastings-Kearney (No. 89). Likewise, 2023 also had a tie for the largest position drop. Both Little Rock and South Bend-Elkhart fell 25 positions, the most of any market last year.

There are four markets making a debut appearance in 2024, each landing among the final 11 positions on the chart. Ranked No. 90 is Springfield, Missouri with the highest debut (see page 32), followed by Bangor at No. 92, Honolulu at No. 97 and Shreveport-Texarkana and Chattanooga in the two lowest positions. In 2023, there were six debuts on the chart including five markets in the final 16.