Box Office Insider: 2023 Top-Grossing European Concerts

The Top 25 European concert grosses of 2023 come from five touring headliners who dominate the rankings with the year’s largest box office figures, along with ticket sales results reported by producers of four of Europe’s premier music festivals. Combined, the 25 concert engagements produced almost a half billion U.S. dollars in revenue from 4.3 million tickets sold at 80 performances.

Beyoncé owns three of the events on the chart including the top-ranked concert run: her multiple-night engagement at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium that produced a $39 million haul. She moved 240,330 tickets from five performances at the venue during her massive “Renaissance” world tour that played stadiums in Europe and North America this year.

Her two-show stints in the Netherlands and Poland also appear on the chart at Nos. 21 and 24, with Amsterdam’s Johan Cruijff Arena registering a $12.8 million gross and PGE Narodowy in Warsaw scoring a box office take of $12.4 million.

Harry Styles’ “Love On Tour” also played at a London stadium and racked up a total of $37.3 million to claim the second-highest European gross this year. His four-show engagement at Wembley Stadium, June 13-17, drew 335,394 fans. But with box office totals added from his two earlier shows at the venue in 2022, his overall gross there during his recent tour totals $52.2 million from 482,663 sold tickets at six concerts.

Five more events from “Love On Tour” appear among the Top 25 grosses including Styles’ own engagement at Johan Cruijff Arena that ranks 12th with a $16.5 million gross from three shows. Following are his two-night events at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh, Scotland; Stade de France in Paris; Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales; and Olympic Stadium in Munich.

Amsterdam also hosted the highest-grossing concert run for Coldplay: four nights at Johan Cruijff Arena that earned more than $30.3 million at the box office to rank third among the Top 25. The band has the most engagements on the chart with nine events from the ongoing “Music of the Spheres” world tour appearing in the rankings.

Four-night concert events during the tour also took place at Stadio San Siro in Milan; Estadi Olímpic De Montjuic “Lluís Companys” in Barcelona; Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden; Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England; and Coimbra Stadium in Portugal – all landing in the top 10.

Coldplay also charts with three engagements of two performances each, beginning with an event in early July at Stadion Letzigrund in Zürich (No. 17) that grossed $15 million. The group follows with events at Principality Stadium (No. 19) and Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark (No. 25).

Rammstein lands on the chart with two of three concert engagements reported from the group’s European summer stadium tour. The top grosser at No. 15 was a two-show event at Ernst Happel Stadion in Vienna that earned $15.3 million from 109,264 sold tickets, while three shows at King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels followed at No. 16. The German metal band grossed $15 million at the Belgian stadium from 138,230 tickets.

Elton John enters the Top 25 at No. 7 with one engagement: his nine-show, April 2-17 run at The O2 in London – the only indoor arena event included on the chart. The combined gross from the concerts during the final European leg of his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” trek reached $25.3 million from 148,467 tickets.

Along with the concert headliners, four German festivals rank in the Top 25 beginning with the Hurricane Festival at Eichenring in Scheessel, which ranked highest at No. 10. The three-day event, June 16-18, featured headliners Billy Talent, Muse, and Die Ärzte and grossed

$20 million. Rock am Ring at Nürburgring in Nürburg follows at No. 11 with a gross of $17.7 million on June 2-4. Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon and Die Toten Hosen topped the lineup during its three-day run.

Then, Rock im Park at Nuremberg’s Zeppelinfeld, June 2-4, and Southside Festival at Take Off Park in Neuhausen ob Eck, June 16-18, rank 13th and 14th with three-day grosses of $16.1 million and $15.4 million, respectively.