Photograph: BANG Showbiz. All rights reserved.
Elton John’s farewell tour is the highest-grossing live performance collection of all time.
The ‘Candle within the Wind’ hitmaker launched into his ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Highway’ exhibits in September 2018 and although the run is not but full, figures reported to Billboard Boxscore present he has already grossed $817.9 million throughout 278 exhibits to date, making it the primary tour to cross the $800 million benchmark.
The report was initially set by Ed Sheeran in 2019, when his ‘Divide’ tour grossed $776.4 million in direction of the tip of the 258-show run, placing him forward of U2’s ‘The 360 Tour’, which grossed $736.4 million.
Each Ed and U2’s figures had been generated by enjoying largely stadium exhibits throughout six and 5 continents respectively, whereas Elton’s live shows from 2018 to 2020, and the primary a part of final yr, passed off in arenas in North America, Europe and Oceania, earlier than the ultimate leg was set for stadiums in every continent.
The information exhibits that whereas the ‘Rocketman’ singer grossed $268.2 million over 116 exhibits within the first three North American legs, his stadium exhibits from July-November final yr on the identical continent generated $222.1 million in simply 33 gigs.
Equally, the European stadium gigs grossed $69.2 million in contrast with $49.9 million area exhibits, regardless of enjoying 12 fewer live shows.
However taking a look at tickets, each Ed and U2 have nonetheless outsold Elton, with the 75-year-old singer having bought 5.3 million, which additionally ranks him behind the Rolling Stones’ 1994-95 ‘Voodoo Lounge’ tour, Coldplay’s ‘A Head Stuffed with Goals’ live shows in 2016-17, and Weapons N’ Roses’ 2016-19 ‘Not In This Lifetime…’ live shows.
The ‘Lego Home’ hitmaker tops the attendance charts with 8.9 million tickets, a feat it’s unimaginable for Elton to cross with this tour, although he might transfer as much as fourth place.
Relationship again to reviews for Elton’s 1986 ‘Ice on Hearth’ tour, the ‘Sacrifice’ hitmaker has to this point grossed $1.863 billion and bought 19.9 million tickets for over 1,573 exhibits, together with co-headline performances with the likes of Billy Joel, Eric Clapton and Tina Turner.
This tour has seen him cross the very best profession gross and attendance for a solo artist in Boxscore historical past, overtaking Bruce Springsteen and Madonna.