by Hrefna Helgadóttir 18 Jan 2017
1989 World Tour
Taylor Swift's highest grossing tour, $250m revenue
Taylor Swift's highest attending tour, 2.3m attending
Highest grossing tour of 2015
Also brand deals with Diet Coke, Keds and Apple
The full set is available on Apple Music
On The Road Again Tour
2nd highest grossing tour of 2015
grossed $208 million
2 million attending
#3: James Patterson, Author
#4: Dr Phil McGraw, Personality
#4: Christiano Ronaldo, Athlete
What Now? Tour
Stadium/Arena Comedy Show
168 shows (2015-2016)
Grossed over $1 million per show
On track to be highest grossing comedy tour of all time
#7: Howard Stern, Radio Host
#8: Lionel Messi, Athlete
Adele Live 2016
gross $150 million
1.47 million attending
Fun fact, the tour was not nearly sold to its full potential capacity.
10 million people tried to buy tickets to the N-American leg.
750 thousand were available.
Also Adele's album 25 sold over 20 million copies
She's the only person who made
significant income from album sales in 2016.
#10: Rush Limbaugh, Radio Host
#11: LeBron James, Athlete
Rebel Heart Tour
grossed $170 million
over a million attended
Also own clothing and fragrance brands
#13: Ellen DeGeneres, Personality
Anti World Tour
Following album Anti
Also brand deals with Dior, Puma, Samsung and Stance
The Garth Brooks World Tour
Official figures not available
But has been breaking records since it launched
#16: Roger Federer, Athlete
Rock or Bust World Tour
1.3 million attended
grossed $85 million
Halfway through the tour Axl Rose from Guns N' Roses replaced AC/DC's Brian Johnson as the band's frontman because of health reasons.
América Latina Olé Tour
1.3 million attended
Grossed $6 million per event
What's interesting about the Rolling Stones, is how few dates their tours have, but yet they are consistently at the top. Here's a post about it.
#19: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Actor
Magician, Las Vegas Residency at MGM Grand
Unconfirmed figures for 2016, but he's sold more tickets than any solo entertainer in history (over his career), with over 33 million tickets sold grossing over $4 billion total.
Las Vegas Residency
Calvin Harris plays over 100 DJ sets a year in Las Vegas.
He's been a top earner in the field since 2013.
#22: Diddy, musician
– but makes no money from touring
#23: Jackie Chan, actor
The River Tour, with The E Street Band
1.1 million tickets sold
grossed $266.5 million
Fun fact, with the E Street Band Springsteen holds the biggest Boxscore of the year when they grossed almost $20 million from just two shows in Dublin, Ireland. 160k people attended just those two shows in Croke Park.
One on One Tour
grossed $55 million from the first half of the tour
Purpose World Tour
gross $139 million
sells a lot of merch
Also Purpose the album was also one of the best selling albums of 2016.
Brand deal with Calvin Klein
The Big Revival Tour
Co-headlined with Jason Aldean, Eric Church and Miranda Lambert
for some of the events. Biggest country tour of 2015.
Also brand deals with Corona beer, Costa sunglasses, and Blue Chair Bay rum
#26: Novak Djokovic, athlete
#26: Kevin Durant, athlete
#30: Matt Damon, actor
#30: Ryan Seacrest, personality
iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour
grossed $152 million
The Weeknd had major singles in 2015
He's the first artist to simultaneously hold the top three spot on the Billboard Hot R&B Chart with Earned It, The Hills, and Can't Feel My Face.
The Formation World Tour
attended by 2.242 million
grossed $256 million
Beyoncé's Lemonade also came out and has been sold in over 600k copies.
#35: Gordon Ramsey, Chef
#36: Jay-Z, Musician
but didn't make money from music
Kill The Lights Tour
900k attended
Also brand deals with Miller Lite and Cabela's.
#37: Tom Cruise, Actor
#37: Phil Mickelson, Athlete
#37: Cam Newton, Athlete
#37: Jordan Spieth, Athlete
#42: Kim Kardashian, Personality
#43: Kobe Bryant, Athlete
The Drones World Tour
grossed $25 million
Also The Drones album
Btw, if you only watch one of those embedded videos, make it this one.
Starlight live is iconic enough as it is – but this video is from Glastonbury in 2016, recorded by the BBC. Try not getting goosebumps.
Sonic Highways World Tour AKA Broken Leg Tour
grossed $68 million
#46: Johnny Depp, actor
Interstates & Tailgates Tour
no information available
Also brand deals with Ford and own business
ventures like Love This Bar and Grill restaurant.
#48: Judy Sheindlin, Personality
#49: Lewis Hamilton, Athlete
#49: Jennifer Lawrence, Actress
#51: Tiger Woods, Athlete
#52: Eli Manning, Athlete
#53: Joe Flacco, Athlete
Made V.I.P Tour
no information available
Don't know these guys? They're the biggest band in Asia.
Boy band from Korea. See video for loud teen screams
#54: Tom Brady, Athlete
#54: Floyd Mayweather Jr., Athlete
Income comes from tour, syndication from Seinfeld
and web series Comedians in Cars getting Coffee
#58: Ben Affleck, actor
#58: Sofia Vergara, actress
#60: Rory McIlroy, athlete
Income comes from live performances
and also from having written the Lion King
#61: Russell Wilson, athlete
Dr Dre didn't do much touring, but Apple bought Beats
and he released an album in 2015
The Prismatic World Tour
almost 2 million people attended over 2 years
grossed over $200 million total
Also has brand deals with H&M, Claire's and CoverGirl
#63: Sebastian Vettel, athlete
I Don't Know Tour
also runs Florida beach resort, Margaritaville
Income from tour
All I Have – Las Vegas Residency
began in 2016
grossed over $35 million
Fun fact: one performance in August earned over $1 million,
which is Planet Hollywood's highest grossing show to date
Also, is on American Idol and has deals with L'Oréal,
Endless Jewellery and own series of fragrances.
Summer Sixteen Tour
grossed $65 million
over half a million attended
Also released two albums and has
brand deals with Nike, Sprite and Apple.
#70: Philip Rivers, athlete
Tour & Las Vegas Residency
116 performances in 2016
#71: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, athlete
#72: Rafael Nadal, athlete
#72: Neymar, athlete
We Were Here / Six String Circus Tour
performed for almost half a million people
grossed over $25 million
#75: Fernando Alonso, athlete
#77: Gareth Bale, athlete
#78: Marcell Dareus, athlete
#78: Vin Diesel, actor
#80: Peyton Manning, athlete
#80: Derrick Rose, athlete
#82: A.J. Green, athlete
Maroon V Tour
grossed $109.7 million
82 shows over 2 years
#82: Kei Nishikori, athlete
Turns out writing a song for Justin Bieber earns one some dollars.
25th Anniversary Tour
#86: Robert Downey Jr., actor
#86: James Harden, athlete
#86: Shah Rukh Khan, actor
#86: Melissa McCarthy, actress
#91: Usain Bolt, athlete
#92: Clayton Kershaw, athlete
#92: Dwayne Wade, athlete
#94: Akshay Kumar, actor
Las Vegas Residency
Six days a week – since 2001
They also managed some touring in 2016
(we're not sure how that's possible either)
#94: Brad Pitt, actor
#97: Carmelo Anthony, athlete
#97: Drew Brees, athlete
#99: Gisele Bundchen, model
Las Vegas Residency
grossed almost $30 million in 2016
She also has a series of fragrances and a mobile game in development.
They compile the list from June 2015, to June 2016. This is why we're seeing a lot of the acts with the biggest tours of 2015 high up on the list.
Figures come from various sources, including Nielsen, Pollstar, and from the stars themselves.