Coldplay set to become first band to net $1bn tour

Coldplay’s globe-trotting Music of the Spheres run could see them become the first band to gross $1 billion from a single tour.

The group topped Pollstar‘s Worldwide Top 100 Artists chart for Q1 2024, earning $100.5 million from 13 concerts, including six nights at Singapore National Stadium. The top 3 also consisted of U2, whose Las Vegas Sphere residency garnered $95.2m, and Madonna’s The Celebration Tour, which grossed $86.2m.

The Music of the Spheres World Tour, which was the fourth highest-grossing trek of 2023, kicked off in Costa Rica in March 2022 and has an average gross of $6.1m, with 43 stadium dates remaining.

At last count it had earned $810.9m, having been attended by 7.66 million fans.

“It’s no surprise to me that Coldplay has become one of the most successful touring acts of all time”

“It’s no surprise to me that Coldplay has become one of the most successful touring acts of all time,” the band’s international agent Josh Javor of WME tells Pollstar. “The band has been setting trends and pushing the boundaries of how fans experience a concert for years. This show has a great value for the ticket price and is one that attendees truly never forget – the amount of pure entertainment that the band packs into one show is unparalleled!”

Should they surpass the billion-dollar mark, Coldplay would follow in the footsteps of Taylor Swift, whose Eras Tour officially become the first tour in history to surpass $1 billion in revenue last December.

This June, Coldplay will become the first act to headline Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage five times. They previously topped the bill in 2002, 2005, 2011 and 2016. The date will mark the band’s only European festival appearance of the year. Revisit IQ’s Music of the Spheres Tour feature here.

According to Pollstar data, the total of the Top 100 Tours in the first quarter of 2024 was up 35% year-over-year to $1.252bn – passing the billion-dollar mark for the first time in a Q1.

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