Elton John at a concert in New Orleans, Louisiana
Photo: Getty Images, Erika Goldring. All rights reserved.
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Since 2018 it has been clear that there would probably only be one more tour by Elton John. The singer had announced a final concert tour around the world dubbed the “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour. Now we also know that this is the most successful tour in the history of pop and rock music.
So transmitted “billboard” on Monday (January 30) that Elton John has grossed $817.9 million from his 278 performances to date. That’s more than any other tour since numbers have been collected for it. So far, no act has managed to break the 800 million mark. Ed Sheeran previously ranked first with his Divide Tour ($776.4 million).
Sheeran set the record in 2019 towards the end of his 258-show tour, superseding U2’s “360 Tour” ($736.4 million). Both Elton John and U2 and Ed Sheeran traveled all around the world for these record numbers. However, while U2 and Ed Sheeran performed almost exclusively in stadiums, Elton John made an impressive part of his sales between the years 2018 and 2020 (before the Corona pandemic stopped him) with concerts in (large) arenas before he also went to stadiums.
Gilded retirement from the tour business
As “Billboard” calculates, Elton John’s tour segment in North America alone brought in a total of 268.2 million dollars with 116 gigs. The stadium tour from July to November 2022 was even more successful in terms of the number of performances. With “only” 33 concerts, the singer took in a proud 222.1 million dollars.
Similarly, stadium revenue in Europe surpassed that of concert halls at $69.2 million compared to $49.9 million – despite playing 12 fewer gigs. Most recently, his average gross revenue per concert rose from $2.5 million in arenas in 2019 and 2020 to $5.1 million in stadiums.
The Oceania tour in Australia and New Zealand alone grossed $40.9 million this January with 242,000 tickets sold. But all that is not the end: Elton John can still extend his record with another 51 concerts in Europe until July and thus ensure that it may even stand for eternity.
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