Kendrick Lamar Makes First Appearance At No. 1 This Year On Artist Power Index

Kendrick Lamar jumps to No. 1 on the Artist Power Index after scoring highly in three of the four eligibility metrics that determine rankings on the chart. His best showing is in Airplay, where he lands fourth among this week’s top performers while earning the seventh highest score in the Streaming category. Then, he has the fifth-best Live score behind Beyoncé, who tops the list of artists in that metric, followed by Post Malone with the second-highest Live rank, Metallica at No. 3 and fourth-ranked SZA, his co-headliner this year on the “Grand National Tour.”

His move up the chart comes six weeks into the world tour that launched on April 19 with 23 performances at North American stadiums booked through mid-June. With box office results reported from the first 10 concerts on the tour, Lamar and SZA have grossed over $115 million so far from just over half a million sold tickets.

Among the stadiums booked during their opening month on the road, MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, hosted the only two-night engagement and recorded $24.8 million earned from 107,466 sold tickets, May 8-9. Likewise, the highest gross reported among the venues booked for one concert was $15.4 million at Lumen Field in Seattle, Washington, on May 17. Attendance at that show peaked at 60,941, also the highest on the tour for a single performance.

Lamar and SZA will remain on the road in North America through June 18 but will take their “Grand National Tour” to Europe for a six-week run through nine countries beginning in July. Their opening performance will be on the 2nd at RheinEnergie Stadion in Cologne, Germany, and the tour’s finale is planned for Aug. 9 at 3Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.

The top-ranked debut on the Artist Power Index belongs to Ed Sheeran, who enters the lineup at No. 6 after he kicked off the final European leg of his ongoing “+-=÷x” (Mathematics) Tour on May 30. A two-night stint at Riyadh Air Metropolitano in Madrid, Spain, was the first stadium date on the 14-week summer jaunt that will culminate with a three-show engagement in Düsseldorf, Germany, Sept. 5-7.

Since the “Mathematics” tour launched in April of 2022, Sheeran has grossed more than $666 million at stadiums and outdoor concert sites around the globe, according to box office figures reported through the end of 2024. He sold over 6.8 million tickets at 144 concerts in Asia, Europe, Oceania and the Americas during the first two-and-a-half years of the tour.

LIVE75 sees a return engagement at No. 1 by Beyoncé, who makes it two weeks in a row with the top ranking based on ticket sales from her “Cowboy Carter Tour” that began in April. A sold-ticket average of 49,167 at the first eight performances on the tour earns her a repeat performance atop the chart, while her $14.1 million gross average per show again earns “Heavy Hitter” status as the highest on the 75-position chart.

Joining her in the top 10 on LIVE75 is Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Kenny Chesney, who earns the “Hot Shot” classification as the artist with the top-ranked debut of the week. He lands at No. 7 based on a ticket average of 16,093 per show at the first three performances of his 15-show run at Sphere in Las Vegas. His “Live at Sphere Las Vegas” residency began on May 22 with a sellout crowd of 15,763 in attendance, while ticket sales totaled 16,420 on May 24 and 16,096 the next night.

Combined grosses from Chesney’s first three performances reached $10.6 million for an average of $3.5 million per night. He is one of two headliners, along with Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, No. 4 on the chart, with gross averages in the $3 million range. Only three artists, including top-ranked Beyoncé, have a larger average gross. Post Malone (No. 2) averaged $7.5 million at 10 stadium performances, and Shakira (No. 3) follows with a $4.3 million average from six concerts on her tour.