Last week, Billboard revealed its year-end Boxscore charts, ranking the top tours, venues, and promoters of 2023. That coverage included analysis of the new wave of genre diverse artists crashing stadium stages, and in turn, our charts. This week, we are breaking down the year’s biggest tours, genre by genre. Today, we continue with rock.
Rock music has been at the center of the touring industry for decades, with legendary acts like The Rolling Stones, U2, and the Eagles controlling stadium calendars and delivering record-breaking grosses. That is still the case, as rock is responsible for more entries in the all-genre top 10, 20, 40 and 100 than any other genre.
But at 32.4% of all top 100 tours’ grosses, rock takes a dramatic hit from last year’s 42.5% figure. Combined with pop, the two central genres have lost a third of their total market share since the pandemic, as pockets of Latin and K-pop acts take up prime Boxscore real estate. And as rock accounts for many of the oldest artists in the top 100, with Latin and K-pop bringing up the chart’s youngest names, the future of rock bands as touring titans is blurrier than it was 5-10 years ago.
But with a new round of legacy tours from ‘90s and ‘00s bands, plus steady arena grosses from 21st century acts like Arctic Monkeys, Greta Van Fleet and Imagine Dragons, there is still plenty of juice for the coming years.
Scroll to check out the top 10 highest-grossing tours by rock artists, with such acts qualifying due to recent performance on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums and/or Hot Rock Songs charts. Rankings are determined according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. All reported shows worldwide between Nov. 1, 2022 – Sept. 30, 2023 are eligible.
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Phish
Image Credit: Keith Griner/Getty Images $76.8M / 597K tickets / 41 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: 24
Phish is among the most consistent touring acts, regardless of genre. From its annual destination event in Mexico to its reliable runs of shows at Madison Square Garden, the jam-band legends continue to one-up themselves, after winding up at No. 31 on last year’s all-genre ranking.
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Red Hot Chili Peppers
Image Credit: Samir Hussein/WireImage $77.2M / 657K tickets / 18 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: 23
Red Hot Chili Peppers repeat in the year-end rock breakdown with shows in Asia, Europe and North America. Still, the band’s $77.2 million total doesn’t include the $48.2 million from its co-headline shows with Post Malone in Australia.
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Muse
Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images $92.7M / 1M tickets / 45 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: 20
Muse makes its first appearance among the year-end top 10 rock tours since 2013, when the glam-rock band earned $43.2 million while on The 2nd Law World Tour. The European leg did the heaviest lifting, with nine of the top 10 grosses of the year.
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blink-182
Image Credit: Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images $95.7M / 692K tickets / 45 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: 19
Blink is back with the biggest tour of its career. The original trio of Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker reunited for 45 sold-out shows in North America and Europe. Things came to a head with two nights at Los Angeles’ BMO Stadium, where blink-182 grossed $8.8 million and sold 43,600 tickets.
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Guns N’ Roses
Image Credit: Guilherme Neto $96.2M / 888K tickets / 31 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: 18
Guns N’ Roses logs a second year between $90-100 million after being No. 8 on 2022’s genre Boxscore breakout. More shows after the tracking period’s cutoff puts the rock icons on tap for the ’24 ranking with $19.7 million already in the bank.
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Dead & Company
Image Credit: Joshua Hitchens $114.7M / 845K tickets / 28 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: 15
Dead & Company played its farewell tour between May 19 and July 16, yielding its first $100 million summer since launching as a touring unit in 2015. The peak was a three-night run at San Francisco’s Oracle Park to end the tour, earning $20.4 million from 118,000 tickets sold.
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Metallica
Image Credit: Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images $125.8M / 1.2M tickets / 19 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: 14
Metallica grossed more than $10 million in seven markets between Europe and North America, doubling up in Montreal, Paris and more. The M72 World Tour continues with scheduled dates through Sept. 29, 2024.
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Depeche Mode
Image Credit: Katja Ogrin/Redferns $175.2M / 1.8M tickets / 47 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: No. 9
The first of three rock acts in the all-genre top 10, Depeche Mode scores the biggest year of its touring career, blowing past 2017’s $123.5 million. Three shows at Mexico City’s Foro Sol on Sept. 21, 23 and 25 delivered the band’s biggest gross ever, at $15.4 million from 195,000 tickets sold.
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Elton John
Image Credit: Harry Durrant/Getty Images $210M / 1.3M tickets / 65 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: No. 7
Elton John notches a fifth year on the year-end Boxscore recap with the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, having topped the abridged 2020 report. After all was said and done, set a new record as the highest-grossing tour in Boxscore history, regardless of genre. Over 329 shows, the trek earned $939.1 million and sold six million tickets.
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Coldplay
Image Credit: Monica Schipper/Getty Images $342.5M / 3.2M tickets / 55 shows
All-Genre Top 100 Rank: No. 2
Switching places with John from last year, Coldplay takes top honors as the highest-grossing rock act of 2023. The band’s spread covers shows in North and South America, as well as Europe, with dates in Asia and Australia in the 2024 tracking window. After kicking off in 2022, the Music of the Spheres Tour has brought in $664.5 million and sold 6.7 million tickets.