Sheeran Tops Two Charts; Chesney Heavy Hitter On LIVE75

Ed Sheeran moves up from a second place showing on the Artist Power Index and LIVE75 in the previous issue to No. 1 on both charts this week based on ticket sales from three Irish venues on his “Mathematics” tour, now in the early weeks of a five-month run through Europe. With attendance totaling 300,000 at stadiums in Dublin, Cork and Limerick, his tour racked up a combined gross of $26.8 million, April 23 through May 6, from two-show engagements at all three stadiums.

On the Artist Power Index, Sheeran’s high finish is largely due to his top rank in three of the four categories that determine the overall chart positions. He scores the highest Live, Streaming and Airplay rank along with the 32nd position in Social to boost his rise to the top. Then on LIVE75, his No. 1 appearance is determined by a sold-ticket average of 50,000 per show at the tour’s first three venues. His gross average comes to a whopping $4.47 million, yet it ranks as the second highest on the chart.

Kenny Chesney, who debuts on LIVE75 as the “Hot Shot” artist this week, beats Sheeran’s gross by less than 1%, scoring a $4.51 million gross average to earn “Heavy Hitter” status based on sales data reported from the first four venues on his new tour. Three of his dates were stadium performances, but he also played the first outdoor amphitheater on his summer itinerary, a May 5 show at Ruoff Music Center in the Indianapolis area with 15,376 fans in attendance.

Along with a sold-out tour opener at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., he also played Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium and Busch Stadium in St. Louis through May 7, grossing over $18 million from 155,740 total tickets. Chesney’s tour was originally named “Chillaxification” and was planned for 2020 in support of his Here and Now studio album that was released in May of that year. Postponed twice due to COVID-19, it finally kicked off on April 23, the same day as Sheeran’s.

Metallica is a new entry on the Artist Power Index, landing at No. 15 on the strength of the band’s own re-scheduled tour, originally set to run in 2020 but finally launched on April 27 of this year. The stadium trek through South American countries began in Santiago, Chile, with concerts following in Argentina and Brazil. With all but one of the six scheduled shows falling in the time frame for chart eligibility, the heavy metal veterans scored the fifth highest Live rank of the week.

Christian rock artist Zach Williams, who earned “Breakthrough” status on LIVE75 for five consecutive weeks based on a near-100% sellout percentage at over 10 reported shows, gives way to R&B artist Lucky Daye, who takes the tag this week. At No. 41, he has 13 shows in the mix, all sellouts in such cities as Chicago, Toronto, Nashville and Philadelphia. His performance on April 23 at Terminal 5 in New York City produced his best box-office counts, drawing 3,000 fans for a gross of $110,100. With a total of 19,098 tickets sold at all 13 venues, his ticket average totaled 1,469.