The Millennium’s Most Popular Women In Touring

Queen Bey asked and emphatically answered: “Who runs the world? GIRLS!” In the live space, especially in the last five to 10 years, it is women, more so than ever before, who have regularly crowned Pollstar’s touring charts, and that was not necessarily the case early in the century. But, while clearly there is not yet gender parity in touring, the data in this Millennium’s Most Popular Women In Touring ranking, and the larger touring market, suggest there is very good reason to believe that in the near future that will change.

In today’s live market, there are far more women artists who can fill stadiums and arenas than ever before. Prominent examples are the four women who top this slate of artists: Taylor Swift, P!NK, Beyoncé and Madonna, each with ticket sales in the tens of millions since 2001. They are also the only women to grace Pollstar’s “25 Most Popular Artists of the Millennium,” published earlier this year.

That said, there are many more women superstars beyond the aforementioned, including Lady Gaga, Shakira, Adele, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Celine Dion, Carrie Underwood, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, Shania Twain, and Cher, among others. Also, though, there’s a surfeit of next-gen superstar women, including Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Karol G, Olivia Rodrigo, SZA, BLACKPINK, Charli xcx, boygenius (as a group and as solo artists) and Dua Lipa, among others, who have long, massive careers ahead of them.

Heading up the list of the 25 most popular women touring artists during the first quarter of the 21st century, based on ticket sales, is Taylor Swift. She ranks No. 1 with 18,885,185 tickets sold worldwide since 2001. The biggest impact on the overall number of tickets sold during her career was her two most recent tours, both set exclusively in stadiums. Her “Reputation” tour in 2018 averaged over 54,000 sold tickets per show, and “The Eras Tour,” 2023-2024, averaged more than 68,000 tickets per night.

Stadium-sized box-office totals also contributed greatly to ticket tallies for the three other women at the top of the chart. P!NK performed at stadiums on her “Summer Carnival” tour (2023-2024), while her “Beautiful Trauma World Tour” (2018-2019) included a European stadium run. Her first headlining tour set primarily in stadiums was 2010’s “Funhouse Summer Carnival.”

Beyoncé, who ranked No. 1 overall on 2025’s Top 200 Worldwide Touring Artists chart, did so based on stadium sales totals from her “Cowboy Carter Tour.” It was the fifth all-stadium tour of her career, as she previously played only stadiums on “Formation” (2016) and “Renaissance” (2023). And her two co-headlining tours with Jay-Z, “On the Run” (2014) and “On the Run II” (2018), were also booked only in stadiums.

Madonna most recently played stadiums in 2012 on her “MDNA Tour,” booked in 31 stadiums and outdoor venues and 34 arenas, but her 2008-2009 “Sticky & Sweet” Tour, which held the record as the highest-grossing tour by a woman for 14 years, was primarily a stadium run. Over two-thirds of the shows on that tour were set in stadiums and other large venues.

In addition to having the largest ticket sales total, Swift is also the artist with the highest number of tickets sold per show, averaging 32,844 per concert. Beyoncé follows with an average of 24,292, but Colombian singers Shakira and Karol G also top the 20,000-ticket threshold. They averaged 21,231 and 22,279 sold tickets per show, respectively.

Swift also leads the pack in all the categories based on ticket revenue, including her overall gross of $3.13 billion, the highest of any artist, female or male, since the start of the century. Again, Beyoncé follows with the second-highest overall gross among women headliners with a box-office total of $1.78 billion.

The average ticket price from Swift’s six career headlining tours is $165.54, also the highest among women, while Beyoncé has an average ticket of $150.41, followed by Celine Dion at $144.88 and Madonna with $142.97. Then, P!NK, Lady Gaga, Karol G and Billie Eilish are the other artists with an average ticket price topping $100.

In the average gross metric, Swift leads with a $5.4 million average per show, and Beyoncé is next with $3.7 million; they are the only two women with gross averages over $3 million. In the $2 million range are Karol G with $2.8 million, Madonna with $2.7 million, Shakira with $2.1 million and P!NK with just over $2 million per concert. Then, six more women have a gross average topping $1 million: Lady Gaga and Eilish, along with Rihanna, Dua Lipa, Faith Hill and Helene Fischer.

While the top 25 ranking is international in scope, North Americans dominate the list, claiming 20 of the ranked positions, while the two Colombian artists, Shakira and Karol G, represent South America. Elsewhere on the chart, Lipa, who was born in London, is the first of two women from Europe, and Fischer, from Germany, is the second. Then, Kylie Minogue is the sole Australian artist ranked on the chart.

Genre labels are harder to pin down, yet pop music, in all its various styles and musical niches, tends to prevail in this slate of artists. Shakira and Karol G both land in the Latin category, while the R&B stars in the ranking are Beyoncé, Rihanna and Janet Jackson. Joining Hill in the top 25 are four others representing country music with Carrie Underwood ranked highest. Also featured are Shania Twain, Miranda Lambert and the only all-female group on the list, The Chicks. Finally, Fischer, a Schlager singer, is one of Germany’s most renowned artists in the genre.

Looking at the overall global box-office results, the top 25 women collectively sold a total of 135.9 million tickets worldwide during the 25-year period beginning Jan. 1, 2001. Their grosses together reached $15.8 billion, based on a total of 10,314 concert performances reported to Pollstar. Their average number of tickets sold per show is 13,174, while the average gross for a single performance comes to $1,531,513.