Metallica And KISS Amongst The Highest-Grossing Tours Of 2019

KISS and Metallica sit alongside Ed Sheeran and Ariana Grande as this year’s top earners from touring

Music industry publication Billboard have released the charts for the highest-grossing tours of 2019, which include Metallica and KISS in the top ten.

Unsurprisingly, Ed Sheeran has taken the number one spot, grossing over $223m across 54 shows, playing to over 2.5m fans.

The charts are based on tours played between November 1 2018 and October 31 2019.

Metallica played to 1.7m fans across 46 shows, grossing over $177m. KISS played 72 shows to over 855,000 fans, which pulled in over $88m.

READ THIS: I spent the day in Metallica’s inner circle

twenty one pilots also appeared in the top 40 highest-grossing tour list. The pair grossed almost $50m from 62 shows, played to over 725,000 fans.

In terms of the venues that pulled in the most fans and most money, New York’s Madison Square Garden topped the 15,000+ capacity category, while the SSE Hydro in Glasgow topped the 10,000-15,000 capacity group.

Here are the 20 highest-grossing tours of 2019:

1. Ed Sheeran
2. Pink
3. BTS
4. Elton John
5. The Rolling Stones
6. Metallica
7. Ariana Grande
8. Paul McCartney
9. Backstreet Boys
10. KISS
11. Cher
12. Shawn Mendes
13. Michael Buble
14. Jonas Brothers
15. Spice Girls
16. Billy Joel
17. Post Malone
18. Justin Timberlake
19. Eagles
20. Hugh Jackman

Metallica brought their WorldWired tour to the biggest venues of Europe this summer, which saw them headline such iconic venues as Twickenham Stadium in London and Olympiastadion in Berlin.

The thrash legends have already announced their plans summer 2020: they will be be playing two headlining sets at Danny Wimmer festivals across the United States.

Catch Metallica at one of the following next year:

• Epicenter - May 1-3 - Concord, North Carolina
• Welcome To Rockville - May 8-10 - Daytona Beach, Florida
• Sonic Temple - May 15-17 - Columbus, Ohio
• Louder Than Life - Sept 18-20 - Louisville, Kentucky
• Aftershock - October 9-11 - Sacramento, California

KISS, on the other hand, are preparing to bid farewell to touring, having announced their final ever UK show for next year’s Download festival on June 12-14. Get your tickets here.

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