Mid-Year Business Analysis: What Blue Dot Fever? Record-Setting Grosses & Tix, Bad Bunny Has Top Tour

By Bob Allen & Andy Gensler

The proliferation this year of so-called “Blue Dot Fever,” the term sparked by ticketing venue maps of certain tours showing a preponderance of unsold seats represented as blue dots, led to wildfire-like group think claiming that the live business was collapsing. This was led most often by uninformed insta-pundits citing exorbitant ticket prices, an over-saturated market and a sluggish economy marred by relatively high inflation.

Some of this reasoning has merit. Many mid-tier and smaller venues, as participants at this year’s NIVA conference confirmed, are struggling to make ends meet and up against a tight economy. And some artists, too, are forsaking touring, citing higher costs and the inability to turn a profit. 

See Pollstar Mid-Year (Quarterly) Charts Here

All that said, with the 2026 mid-year box-office data tabulated, Pollstar can say definitively that the sky is far from falling on the live business. In fact, with sales figures reported for the first six months of the year, concert grosses and ticket sales for the Top 100 Worldwide Touring Artists are at record highs. The data shows a largely healthy and robust live market at the top of the live business with relatively small decreases in year-to-year show averages.

Record Setting Mid-Year 2026 

The mid-year’s top tours, grosses and ticket sales, based on reported data, reflect all-time highs and by double-digit percentages. Overall, grosses for the top 100 artists total a whopping $3.16 billion — 12.3% higher than 2025’s $2.81 billion gross. It also tops the $3.07 billion mid-year gross from 2024, a year considered the apex of the “Golden Age” for live entertainment following the pandemic collapse.

Global ticket sales in 2026 are also at a record high with a total of 26,347,656 tickets sold by the top 100 artists during the mid-year eligibility timeframe (Nov. 13, 2025 – May 13, 2026). That figure surpasses 2025’s ticket count of 23.4 million by 12.8%. It is also more than the sales totals from 2024 and 2023 which hit 24.1 million (up 9.3%) and 24.3 million (up 8.6%), respectively.

This is good news. It means, despite economic hardships, a crowded market and the constant battle for consumer attention, live music is still very much in demand. Yes, this year, as every year. Some artists will get hit with the blue-dot contagion, especially those without a major hit or top album in years, but otherwise, live music is as important and valued as much as – if not more than – ever. 

AVERAGES ARE DOWN:

Despite this encouraging news, decreases are also part of the mid-year story and point to a less rosy outlook for the top of the industry. Per-show averages for global gross, ticket sales and ticket prices are all down, albeit only 5% percent or less.

The top 100 touring artists grossed an average of $1.63 million per show which is 5% less than the $1.71 million last year, but it’s 18.7% higher than 2024’s average gross, and it beat 2023’s average by 10.5%.

Likewise, the average number of tickets sold per show is 13,574 for the top 100. That represents a 4.6% drop compared to 2025’s average of 14,229, yet it is 26.1% higher than 2024’s average and tops the 2023 ticket average by 7.3%.

The $119.92 average ticket price this year is barely less than last year’s $120.43 – under a single percentage point. And over the past four years, only 2024’s price spiked – $127.38, while the other years hovered around $120.

Which begs the question, how did the mid-year reach record-setting grosses and ticket sales with lower averages? Part of the answer lies in the volume of shows. This year there is an 18.2% jump in the number of shows reported for the top 100 artists. That’s a recovery of sorts, considering 2025’s show count dropped 26.7% compared to 2024, which had more shows than any other year. But 2026 came in 13.3% lower than 2024 in number of shows.

Additionally, the number of this year’s stadium shows, which Pollstar puts at 30,000 or more, dropped significantly. Last year, there were 18 stadium tours at mid-year, up from the 11 stadium tours identified in 2024. In 2026 we are back down to 11.

These two factors indicate that the live industry in 2026 is working harder than ever – as if that were possible. We’re putting on more shows for more fans and thankfully earning record-setting ticketing revenues. Coming out of the pandemic into the “Golden Age” of live between 2022 and 2024, the analogy heard most often was that working in the live business was akin to drinking from a firehose. Well, it turns out, that firehose in 2026 hasn’t subsided and shows little signs of flagging.

The North American Story

North American totals for 2026 follow similar trajectories to the worldwide tallies in all metrics based on ticket sales, but the percentages vary. For example, while the global gross jumped 12.3% this year compared to 2025, the year-to-year increase in North America was only 0.1% – from $1.921 billion last year to $1.923 billion in 2026. This plateauing suggests North American revenues may be at a ceiling of sorts.

The 15,742,357 tickets sold in North America, though, was higher than 2025’s 15.4 million, reflecting an increase of 2.5%. It is still less than the 12.8% increase seen in the worldwide ticket tallies but again shows a strong domestic live market.

Per-show averages at North American events are down in both gross and ticket sales, just as they were globally. The average number of tickets sold decreased 5.6% in North America compared to 4.6% worldwide. Grosses at North American events averaged $1,141,221 per concert, reflecting a 7.8% drop compared to 2025 – a larger decrease than the 5% in worldwide gross averages.

Then, the average ticket price in North America is $122.15, down 2.4% compared to last year, while the number of reported shows is higher year over year. The 2026 show count increased 8.6% compared to 2025’s total, but, as in the worldwide scenario, the number of shows in 2024 was the record high with 21% more shows reported than at mid-year in 2026.

The Artists Make All The Difference

Bad Bunny’s “Debí Tirar Más Fotos World Tour” is No. 1 on the Top 100 Worldwide Touring Artists chart with $225.2 million grossed from 27 concerts in LatAm, Australia and Europe. With global ticket sales totaling 1,496,735, he is the mid-year’s only artist to top the 1-million mark and the first Latin artist to gross over $1 billion. 

Lady Gaga, the only other artist to surpass $200 million in grosses, follows at No. 2 with $209.4 million from “The Mayhem Ball.” Set in both arenas and stadiums with spectacular production, the tour began last July and wrapped on April 13. At 41 shows, she sold 982,530 tickets on four continents, completing the tour with a capacity crowd of 13,690 at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

With the “Arirang World Tour,” BTS lands at No. 3 based on 661,216 sold tickets at 13 concerts. Since launching on April 9 in Goyang, South Korea, the tour has grossed $139.7 million. The reunited K-pop group is the only concert headliner in the top 10 to average more than $10 million in grosses per show.

AC/DC ranks No. 4 with a gross of $120.3 million from 907,831 tickets sold at 15 performances on the band’s “Power Up” stadium tour; Ed Sheeran follows at No. 5 with the only other tour at mid-year to top $100 million. Since his “Loop Tour” kicked off in January, he has played stadium dates in Oceania and Latin America, grossing $105.2 million from 811,233 tickets at 21 concerts.

SEVENTEEN is sixth with $75.9 million from 18 concerts on the K-pop group’s “New World Tour” that wrapped on April 5 after a seven-month run. Then, Cardi B is No. 7 with $72.1 million from the “Little Miss Drama Tour,” her first full-fledged arena trek that played North American arenas from February through April.

Eagles follow at No. 8 with $69.7 million from the band’s concert residency at Sphere in Las Vegas, followed by Trans-Siberian Orchestra with $60.4 million from 109 performances of “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve,” the group’s 2025 holiday tour. Finally, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band’s “Land of Hopes and Dreams American Tour” rounds out the top 10 with a 14-show gross of $58.5 million from 229,678 sold tickets.

Top Venues At Mid-Year

Pollstar’s five venue categories are each represented by two charts, one ranked by gross and another by ticket sales. Radio City Music Hall in New York City is one of four venues that is No. 1 on both. The venue heads up the top 200 Theatres chart with $168.7 million from 1,255,531 tickets, most of them sold at the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular” with 190 performances. Other headliners included Raye and Jo Koy, both with two show engagements.

Forum Melbourne in Australia is No. 1 on both charts ranking the top 200 Clubs with $9.4 million from 158,965 sold tickets at 95 shows. New Zealand reggae band Fat Freddy’s Drop drew the most fans, moving 5,881 tickets at three shows, although Ireland’s Kingfishr followed closely with a three-show ticket count of 5,879.

With its warmer climes in. Q1, Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl is mid-year’s No. 1 amphitheater. . The 13,000-seat venue grossed $16.4 million from 201,955 tickets. Among the four acts with two performances, Sam Fender’s 22,171-ticket total was the highest.

Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City ranks highest in both gross and tickets and by a wide margin. Its $217.6 million gross tops Buenos Aires’ Estadio Mâs Monumental, ranked No. 2, by $119.3 million, while the Mexican stadium’s 1,654,367 ticket count is 850,425 higher. Bad Bunny was the top draw in Mexico City with 517,736 tickets sold at eight concerts last December.

Arenas are the one venue category with separate buildings at No. 1 as Sphere in Las Vegas has the top gross while K-Arena Yokohama in Japan logs the largest ticket total. Sphere’s $206,169,284 gross comes from 954,431 tickets sold at 58 shows. Artists with residencies included Zac Brown Band, Phish, No Doubt, ILLENIUM, Eagles and Backstreet Boys. Then, with 1,324,411 tickets sold through mid-year, K-Arena hosted 38 headlining performers or multiple-artist events with South Korean group TREASURE selling 87,000 tickets at five shows, the most of any headliner.