New York, NY (January 19, 2024)—The numbers are in for the top-grossing tours of 2023, and some of the figures are mind-boggling. As anticipated, Taylor Swift led the pack with “The Eras Tour” pulling in more than $1 billion—the first tour ever to achieve that number.
Lagging behind were Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” tour ($579.8 million), Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band ($379 million) and Coldplay ($325 million). Honorable mentions go to Harry Styles, Morgan Wallen, Ed Sheeran, P!nk, The Weeknd and Drake, who grossed a mere $184 million (all figures sourced from Pollstar).
Notably absent from the list was country music star and two-time CMA Entertainer of the Year Luke Combs, who grossed “only” $125 million. This appears a bit puzzling because Combs, who performed approximately 40 shows in 2023, played a similar circuit with stops at stadiums such as Soldier Field (Chicago), Gillette Stadium (Foxboro, Mass.) and Busch Stadium (St. Louis, Mo.) in the States, and arena shows at the OVO Hydro Arena (Glasgow, Scotland), O2 Arena (London, England), and Barclays Arena (Hamburg, Germany). Is it because Combs’ shows didn’t sell out?
Hardly.
As a matter of fact, Combs has been breaking ticket sales records for the past few years. His shows at AT&T Stadium (Arlington, Texas) and Busch Stadium were the fastest-ever sellouts at those venues. He’s the first international artist to sell out a tour in Australia or New Zealand, and all of the European dates on his 2023 tour were complete sellouts, which is remarkable for a country artist given the size of the venues (arenas). The trend continues: during the first weekend tickets went on sale for his 2024 “Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old” tour, Combs sold more than 1 million tickets, and 16 of the 25 shows sold out. These numbers already surpass ticket sales for the U.S. portion of his 2023 tour.
So why is he not on the Pollstar highlight reel? Simple: Combs has made a conscious decision to keep his ticket prices down. When he announced his 2022 tour, he also announced that ticket pricing for that tour would be the same as it was in 2020, prior to the pandemic. In an interview with American Songwriter in June of 2022, Combs was quoted as saying, “…I make enough money to not have to worry about anything and be really comfortable, so I never wanna get greedy.” Wow. The average price for a ticket to a show on Combs’ 2023 tour: 97 bucks.
Combs keeps tour costs manageable by keeping the production modest. It’s basically Combs, his band and video monitors placed logistically to ensure that the entire audience has a good view and remains engaged. No lions, tigers or dancing bears. Just live music and no tracks.
[You can read all about production on the stadium-packing tour in our September 2023 tour profile, interviewing much of the audio team —Ed.]
Though Combs could offer the oh-so-trendy “VIP upcharge” with a paid meet and greet, he opts instead to randomly choose 25 lucky fans per show via lottery to meet him backstage, gratis. You gotta’ love that.
It appears that Combs will continue his tenet through 2024. A brief search for available tickets to some of his 2024 shows yielded prices as low as $125 (Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y.) and $69.50 (Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas). He even maintains a section at every show with seats priced at $25, which obviously sell out in a flash.
Given the current state of ticket prices for A-level artists—you can’t even get in the door to see U2 at The Sphere for less than 500 bucks—it’s no wonder that Combs has built strong fan loyalty for the long haul. Good for him. It’ll be interesting to see if other artists follow his lead—though I’m not holding my breath.
