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Deep Data Cuts: Beyond The Top 100 Tours

Welcome to Pollstar’s new Data Insights, subscriber-exclusive Pollstar Data Analytics. For our first installment, we are comparing a longer-tail of touring entities of this past chart year compared to the year before.

Deep Data Cuts of the Tour Circuit; A Two-Year Trek beyond the Top 100 Tours

While the spotlight often shines on the top 100 touring artists, there’s a whole world of entertainment thriving just below. This deep dive takes us beyond the biggest headliners, uncovering the untold stories of the top 1,500 touring entities over the last two years (from Queen + Adam Lambert at No. 101 this year to Pendulum at 1,500). We’re breaking them into tiers, crunching the numbers on grosses, ticket sales, and shows to reveal trends, surprises, and the hidden gems that keep the music world spinning. Buckle up—it’s time to rock the data stage! 

Top-level Tours: 57% and Still Reigning Supreme!

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For both the 2023 and 2024 Pollstar chart years, the top 100 tours continued to dominate, raking in a consistent 57% of the total gross generated by the top 1,500 tours. This solidifies their position as the industry’s revenue powerhouses, with more than half the total earnings concentrated in just 6.7% of the touring entities. These elite performers and shows have an unmatched ability to draw massive audiences and command premium ticket prices, keeping them firmly at the forefront of live entertainment. But with 93.3% of tours sharing the remaining revenue, there’s still a rich story to uncover about how the rest of the industry is evolving. Let’s dig deeper into the tiers and uncover the dynamics shaping the broader market.

Positions 101-1500: Fewer Shows, Big Bucks—Fans Went All In! 

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Allright, forget the top 100—let’s dive into the real action: touring entities from position 101-1,500! In a 2023 to 2024 comparison, this group saw impressive gains despite a 5.8% dip in the number of shows. Average gross per show skyrocketed by 20.4%, with fans not only buying 16.4% more tickets but also spending 5% more per ticket. The result? A total gross increase of 6.5%, proving that fewer shows don’t mean less impact when fans are motivated by live content.

Tier 3 on the Rise: Is the Bottom is Growing Faster Than the Top?

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When we break down the 101-1500 tours into Tier 2 (101-800) and Tier 3 (801-1,500), the results tell an exciting story. Tier 3 led the charge with an 18.6% increase in average tickets per show, edging out Tier 2’s solid 15% growth. On gross per show, Tier 3 once again took the crown with a 22.9% jump compared to Tier 2’s impressive 19.3%.

Tier 3 also saw a substantial 8.1% hike in average ticket price, Tier 2’s increase was a modest 2.5%. And in terms of show count, both tiers experienced a dip, but Tier 2’s 7.6% reduction was steeper than Tier 3’s 1.7%.

So, while Tier 2 might still command more attention overall in terms of gross, Tier 3 is surprisingly growing faster, The underdogs are catching up!

We hope you enjoyed reading our first Weekly Data Insight.  Watch this space or the Chart page or Subscriber Dashboard page on pollstar.com for new installments.  And please let us know your thoughts and suggestions at PollstarPremiumWeekly@pollstar.com.

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