With digital streaming becoming the dominant way to consume music, artists now rely almost entirely on touring and merchandise to make a living.

In the infographic above, we present data on the most successful music tours worldwide as of December 2025. 

It is based on gross revenue in million dollars and comes from the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

TL;DR

• Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour grossed $2.1 billion, the only music tour in history to cross $2 billion and more than double the second-highest-grossing tour
• The top 10 includes tours from acts ranging from 1960s-founded bands to a former boy band member, but seven of the ten entries are from 2017 or later.

Taylor Swift’s Tour Stands Out

The Eras Tour is not the highest-grossing tour by a moderate margin. It occupies a separate financial tier from everything below it. 

The nine other tours on this list combined earned approximately $6.1 billion across their cumulative durations. 

Taylor Swift earned $2.1 billion in approximately 21 months. 

The closest historical comparison point was U2’s 360° Tour, which held the all-time gross record for years before being surpassed. It now ranks fifth.

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The List Is Already Moving

The SCMP December 2025 snapshot is partially outdated. 

As of May 2026, Ed Sheeran’s subsequent Plus Minus Equals Divide Multiply Tour (2022-25) has grossed $875.7 million, surpassing his own Divide Tour record and making him the only artist in history to hold two all-time top-five positions simultaneously. 

His Divide Tour entry (fourth in the ranking above) is already behind his own newer figure.

The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn Tour has sold more than 3 million tickets and generated more than $440 million in revenue during 2026 alone, with more dates still ahead. 

Its final total will likely challenge several entries in the bottom half of this list. 

The Rolling Stones as a Data Anomaly

Twelve years apart, the Rolling Stones appear on the list twice. 

No other act on this list has demonstrated comparable consistency in live revenue over such a span. 

The Rolling Stones’ commercial drawing power was structurally immune to time in a way that most bands’ revenues are not.

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Who Built This Market?

Seven of ten entries in the all-time ranking are from 2017 or later. 

Only U2’s 360° Tour (2009-11) and the Rolling Stones’ A Bigger Bang (2005-07) predate the full restructuring of music industry economics in the streaming era. 

The shift from recorded music revenue toward live performance income (as streaming compressed per-song royalties while live ticket prices surged) is the market condition that produced this list’s concentration in recent years.

According to Pollstar via AMW, the average U.S. concert ticket prices reached $144 in 2025, a 31% increase over five years. 

Meanwhile, the top-10 grossing tours averaged $408 per ticket

Another important context is that these are gross figures. 

Artists typically receive only 10-20% of gross ticket revenue after venue, promoter, and agent fees.

For example, at 15%, Taylor Swift’s estimated artist share of $2.1 billion is approximately $310 million before her own touring costs. 

ELI5 (Explain It Like I’m 5)

Taylor Swift made $2.07 billion from her Eras Tour, more than twice what second-place Elton John made from his 5-year farewell tour. The difference between Taylor and second place is larger than that of any other tour on the list. Most of these record tours have happened in the last 8 years because streaming has taken away music sales, so artists make money from concerts instead. Ticket prices also rose 31% over 5 years, which helps drive these numbers higher.

Source:  

South China Morning Post (SCMP) | AMW | Parade