There’s a lot of money in the rock ‘n’ roll business, and much of it comes from touring.
Especially when it comes to high-profile legacy acts performing in stadiums and arenas, the amount of dough a tour can bring in has the potential to enter the hundred millions. This is particularly important in an age where the sale of actual music — via CDs, vinyl and streaming services — isn’t as lucrative as in previous decades. These days, it’s touring and performing live that supplies artists with the most income.
In the below gallery, we’re taking a look at 30 of the Highest-Grossing Rock Tours Ever. Some went all over the world, some involved brand new, state-of-the-art technology, some saw artists visiting countries they’d never played in before.
It is, of course, difficult to compare tours that took place in different time periods, monetarily speaking. For example, U2‘s 1987 Joshua Tree Tour, one of the most successful tours of the entire ’80s, is at the bottom of this list with a gross income of only $40 million, but that comes out to around 110 million in 2024 dollars.
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To be clear, other rock tours over the years have grossed similar numbers to the one in this list, but below you’ll find those that either broke records or were in the top 10 most lucrative tours of their respective decades.
30 of the Highest-Grossing Rock Tours Ever
Touring is expensive, but it sure can be lucrative, too.
Gallery Credit: Allison Rapp