2023 has been a big year for many musical artists, with multiple national and international tours happening throughout the year. With artists in genres ranging from pop-punk to country, here are ten of the most popular concert tours of this year ranked from the least amount of money brought in at the box office, to the most.
10: Adele
While not a regular tour, “Weekends with Adele” is currently being held at The Colosseum at Caeser’s Palace in Las Vegas. Her Vegas residency is a five-month series of Friday and Saturday night shows that started November 18, 2022, and plans to run until June 15, 2024, for a total of 100 shows by its closing. Katie Atkinson of Billboard called the performance “utterly and breathlessly spectacular.” Adele sings songs from all the albums throughout her career comprised of a 20 song setlist. Adele roughly makes $1.2 million each night she performs her sold out shows.
9: Blink-182
Blink-182’s “The Hard Rock Tour” has planned 93 shows on 4 continents. Billboard estimates that the tour will earn $150 million across its 4 legs. The trio made up of Travis Barker, To DeLonge, and Mark Hoppus, has an average of 15,000 fans at each show. At the end of their North American tour, Blink-182 sold over 564,000 tickets! This concert is ongoing with shows planned through August 2024. Selena Fragassi at the Chicago Sun-Times praised the band’s “innate chemistry” and fury of Barker’s antics.
8: SZA
“The SOS Tour” is the first arena tour by SZA. She kicked off the tour on February 21, 2023, and ended it October 29, 2023. She had 54 shows with box office reports coming in with $34.5 million. The hour and a half show include a set list with over 30 songs from SOS and her debut album CTRL. On average, each show earned $1.9 million and drew more than 12,000 attendees.
7: Drake/21 Savage
“It’s All a Blur Tour” started on July 5, 2023, in Chicago, Illinois, and ended on October 7, 2023, in Toronto. Playing 54 shows, co-headliners, Drake and 21 Savage brought in $105,685,713 in revenue as well as sold more than 500,000 tickets. The tour traveled to arenas all throughout America. The set list included over 40 songs and was around 2 hours and 20 minutes long.
6: Bruce Springsteen/E Street Band
“Springsteen and E Street Band Tour” started February 1, 2023, and is set to end November 22, 2024, with 59 shows in North America and 53 in Europe. Bringing in $142,605,835 at the box office, the tour has been a hit and is being performed in arenas with capacities of up to 20,000. USA Today states “Springsteen performing solo is always moving and memorable. But Springsteen performing with his trusty team, including consigliere/guitarist Steven Van Zandt coolly observing the crowd and scampering around in his Hugh-Hefner-meets- Pirates of the Caribbean garb, is the stuff of magic.”
5: Ed Sheeran
“The Mathematics Tour” started April 23, 2022, and ended August 31, 2023, in stadiums across the world. With 113 shows, the Mathematics Tour has brought in $493,251,867 in revenue and more than 5 million tickets have been sold. Ed Sheeran broke the record for the most tickets sold at Sofi Stadium in Inglewood, California on a singular night with more than 81,000 tickets! Longer than 25 songs, The Mathematics tour is 2 hours and 15 minutes long.
4: Beyonce
“The Renaissance Tour” took on stadiums across the world starting on May 10, 2023, and ending on October 1, 2023. The concert, which is two and a half hours long, was split into six acts and included songs from across her discography. The tour broke ticket sales records worldwide becoming the second highest-grossing tour by a female artist ever. Attendance included 2.77 million fans and $579.8 million at the box office.
3: Harry Styles
“Love on Tour,” the second tour by Harry Styles, started September 4, 2021, and ended July 22, 2023. With 7 legs and 169 shows, this tour was nothing short of successful and brought in $617.3 million to the box office. The tour sold over 5 million tickets and Styles performed songs from all 3 of his solo albums. From August to September 2022, he performed in 15 sold-out shows, which made Madison Square Garden history. During this tour, he also headlined Coachella and won multiple Grammys for his album, Harry’s House.
2: Coldplay
Coldplay’s “The Music of the Spheres” tour took on stadiums across the world. Starting March 18, 2022, and set to end September 2, 2024, the tour has brought in a staggering $667.7 million at the box office due to its more than 6 million fans. With 165 shows, the setlist is comprised of more than 25 songs and is around 2 hours long. Marco Torres from Houston Press called it “a beautiful dream, with balloons flying around, confetti bursting from air cannons, and lasers shooting from the stage through the smoke” as the group performed.
1: Taylor Swift
Number 1, to nobody’s surprise, is Taylor Swift. Swift embarked on a 52-show North American tour called “The Eras Tour” this past summer, which she described as “a journey through the musical eras of my career (past and present!)” The concert itself was 3 hours and 15 minutes long with 44 songs grouped into 10 acts. She broke several records on this tour including the most-attended concert by a female artist ever with 69,000 people on opening night in Glendale, Arizona. According to Forbes, the Eras tour has grossed $780 million as of August 2023 and is expected to gross over $1 billion by the end of 2024. The Eras Tour will continue with Swift touring 5 continents and singing at 94 shows in 2024.
