Stadium Box Office Has Exploded Since 2016, 8x the Rate of Inflation

One year after another, more artists cater their touring schedules to outdoor stadiums, expanding their potential reach by as much as four or five times that of an arena tour. According to IQ Magazine‘s Global Stadium Report, based on figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, total grosses for global stadium shows have risen by more than 275% since 2016. In the same window, the rate of inflation pushed the U.S. dollar by 34%.

After grossing between $1.1 billion and $1.6 billion per year in 2016-19, total stadium earnings rose to $2.5 billion in 2022 and then to $4.6 billion in 2023 (and down less than 3% in 2024).

Today (Aug. 6), IQ Magazine published its Global Stadium Report, including an in-depth analysis of the grosses, attendance and ever-increasing number of stadium concerts, courtesy of data provided by Billboard Boxscore. Concerts at venues with capacity of 35,000 or more from the last decade were included.

Dating back almost 40 years, all Boxscore data is based on figures reported to Billboard Boxscore from a variety of industry sources. Reporting is voluntary, and some artists, venues and promoters opt to withhold data from representation on the charts. While Taylor Swift did publicize the overall gross and attendance of her Eras Tour via The New York Times, show-by-show data was never reported to Billboard Boxscore.

The $4 billion-plus total stadium earnings in each of the last two years include Billboard’s year-by-year projections for The Eras Tour. But even without the record-breaking trek, reported grosses topped out at $3.7 billion in 2023, still more than three times 2016’s total.

2016 was the last time that the average stadium concert ticket cost less than $100 (except for 2020, with a remarkably small dataset due to COVID-19). Since then, prices have consistently risen, hitting an all-time high of $143.12 in 2024, up 46% in just eight years. Tickets in North America were higher than anywhere else then, and even more so now: prices in North America have risen 48% ($101.80 to $150.90 since 2016) without even accounting for Eras projections, outpacing Europe’s increase of 30% ($93.30 to $121.10). In the rest of the world, tickets are up by 16%, from $95.40 to $110.60.

Continually surging ticket prices play a sizeable role in the overall growth of stadium concerts, but more impactful is the rising number of shows each year. In 2016, there were 247 reported shows in stadiums; by 2024, that count grew to 509 reported dates and 592 including Swift’s international shows, up 140%.

In the mid-2010s, the makeup of stadium calendars was much more uniform than it is now. Then, there were 26 acts who played such shows, 17 of which were male rock acts, from Aerosmith to the Rolling Stones. Classic rock still dominated the box office, with few pop (Justin Bieber, Maroon 5) and country (Kenny Chesney, Luke Bryan) acts poking through. The only woman in stadiums that year was Beyoncé, who notably finished at No. 1 on the year-end Top Tours chart. Flash forward to 2024, the number of total acts grew from 26 to 70, and the genre makeup expanded to include K-pop, Latin, rap and more.

From 2016 to 2024, stadium box office grew in every conceivable metric — up 46% in ticket prices, 140% in total shows, 164% in overall attendance and 286% in revenue.

Click here for IQ Mag’s full report.