In some ways, it was no surprise that 2022 was an amazing year for live entertainment. The post-pandemic rush to go out created record-breaking audience numbers and many tours and productions that were put on hold because of Covid-19 went ahead resulting in more shows than in the pre-pandemic era. But somehow, events in 2023 managed to dwarf 2022's numbers according to Pollstar. It's as if both artists and audiences rediscovered their love of live entertainment can't get enough. Last year, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé became the first two women to dominate the worldwide tour numbers since Madonna and Celine Dion in 2008, and by a very comfortable margin. Not to be outdone, Madonna is back in 2024 with rescheduled dates from 2023. This particular glass ceiling is well and truly smashed.
Here are some of the stats that make 2023 a banner year for our industry.
- Total grosses for the top 100 tours worldwide: $9.17 billion. Up almost 50% on the already record-breaking grosses in 2022. Grosses for the top 100 North American tours: $6.63 billion, an almost 40% rise over the year before.
- Concert ticket prices world wide increased more than 23% to $130; in North America where average ticket prices were already higher, the increase was slightly lower, around 22%, to $135 per ticket. It didn't matter to audiences, ticket sales went from 59 million to 70 million globally, 48.8 million of those were in North America.
- Taylor Swift happened: The Eras Tour grossed an unbelievable $1,039,263,762. This billion-dollar juggernaut (which is still happening) followed by Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour ($580 million) and Bruce Springsteen’s outing with the E Street Band ($379.5 million) together made up more than a fifth of worldwide grosses. And while ticket prices are still eye-popping by any standard, the increases are not solely responsible for the growth in take —Springsteen's ticket prices averaged out at $110, $25 below the average for all ticket sales.
- Grosses from the top 100 stadiums, top 200 theatres, and top 200 clubs were all up by nearly a third or more, although those numbers may reflect that many clubs and theatres closed down during the pandemic and have not reopened, meaning a larger ticket-buying audience is being accommodated by fewer venues. The outlook for stadiums is as rosy as it has ever been with several of the top grossing tours continuing in 2024 and other high-profile acts, like The Rolling Stones, Green Day, Foo Fighters, Limp Bizkit, and Idles joining them.
It remains to be seen whether the record-breaking industry profits will be passed along to production crew, but the lengthy writers' and actors strikes of 2023 has surely made the industry more aware of the significance of every professional, and there are still staffing shortages from people who left backstage careers during the pandemic. Let's hope there is some appreciation for the value of the people who stayed.