Rolling Stones, Green Day, Guns N’ Roses among 2021’s highest grossing tours

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By ( Classic Rock ) published

After a disastrous 2020, the worldwide live music circuit bounced back this year, with lucrative returns for some of rock’s most storied names

Stones 2021
(Image credit: Jason Koerner/WireImage)

As they approach their 60th anniversary, The Rolling Stones remain one of the biggest rock bands in the world: in fact, new statistics made available by US live music/ticketing bible Pollstar reveal that the Stones’ on-going No Filter tour was the highest grossing tour of 2021. selling 516,624 tickets across a 12-date, 11-city run, grossing $115.5 million. 

Pollstar’s stats for the Stones’ live business across the decades make for astonishing reading. It’s suggested that the band’s1994-1995 Voodoo Lounge tour grossed $320 million and sold 6.4 million tickets, while their 2005-2007 Bigger Bang Tour grossed $558 million from sales of 4.7 million tickets. Pollstar’s figure estimate that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards’ band accumulated $870 million in the aughts, $929 million in the teens and $800 million in the '90s, so a tidy $2.6 billion over those decades. 

Back to 2021, and the Green Day/Fall Out Boy/Weezer Hella Mega Tour banked  $67.3 million, selling 659,062 tickets over a 20-date trek, with an average ticket costing $102.09. Guns N' Roses placed at number seven on the list, pulling $47.3 million for the year, selling 351,339 tickets over 23 shows in 21 cities: the average ticket cost here was more expensive, at $134.75.

Other rock bands who enjoyed a successful 2021 on the road include Kiss (number 30 on the list, with a $16.9 million gross), Slipknot (number 42, $12.3 million) and Korn (48, $10.3 million).

Pollstar’s full detailed exploration of the gobal live music circuit in 2021 can be viewed online.

Paul Brannigan
Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.