More Stories By Dave Read more about Account

Most people would not expect to see cushions by handing hand in a concert by Dead & Company.

But for Bernie Cahill, by Activist Artists Management – Bobby Weir’s Management firm, founding member of Grateful Dead and leader of Dead & Company (which Cahill manages along with Irving Azoff and Steve Moir) – the decorative cushions, delivered to fans with floor tickets during the night interpretation of “Drums/Space in“ Drums/Space ” The band’s residence in Sphere, has an important purpose. Attendees in the floor area are encouraged to go to bed and look towards the giant screen of the innovative enclosure, which during the instrumental segment usually shows images of the cosmos; At other times during the band Dead Forever of the band, the public enjoys visuals ranging from the San Francisco Bay to psychedelic animations.

Thanks to its immense video screen, the hiring of superstar acts and the high ticket prices, the Sphere de Las Vegas – where Dead & Company raised $ 21.6 million in six concerts in March, when he resumed his shows after a successful season last year – is again the enclosure with the highest income of the world, according to figures reported to Billboard Billboard BoxScore. It exceeds the most important stadium (the GNP Seguros Stadium in Mexico City) and two iconic enclosures in New York (Madison Square Garden and the City Music Hall radio) with a collection of 165.3 million in the middle of the year, a period that covers from October 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025.

The economic power of Sphere does not lie in the amount of shows – half the year, the enclosure has presented shows only in 42 dates, including other residences of the Eagles and the artist of electronic music Anyma – but in the average price of its tickets, which at $ 238 is approximately double those of the Madison Square Garden ($ 133) or the O2 sand of London (105 dollars). While much of the music industry debate about the increase in ticket prices, Sphere has shown that there is a vibrant market willing to pay a premium for special experiences offered by first level talent.

A downward trend: The figures of this half of the year are significantly lower compared to 2024. Last year, the 10 main tours at this time had accumulated a combined income of 1.4 billion dollars, while in 2025, the 10 main ones added 1,000 million dollars, a fall of more than 28%. Among the 50 main tours, the combined difference in income was less pronounced but still remarkable, from 3.2 billion dollars in 2024 to 2,500 million in 2025, a decrease of approximately 21%.

However, this change does not necessarily mean market weakness. The main reason was the number of shows: there have been less concerts in the first half of 2025 than 2024. In 2024, the 10 main tours in the middle of the year reported a combined total of 442 shows in the period, compared to 245 in 2025, a 45%decrease. For the main 50, the 1,425 shows reported in 2024 were reduced to 1,159 in 2025, a 18.7%drop. In the Top Promoters list, Live Nation’s revenues fell to 2.2 billion dollars in 2025 of 2.8 billion in 2024. But since the shows are scheduled with months, or even more than a year, in advance, changes in the total number of shows do not reveal much about consumer spending or demand in the first months of 2025.

The decrease is partially due to the calendar. During a recent profit call, the president and CEO of Live Nation, Michael Rapino, said that more artists are waiting until the second and third quarter to start their tours, and with more acts playing in stadiums in 2025, more important tours will be on the road in the summer, when the weather is better. The number of shows in 2025 should increase in the next six months, which historically cover the busiest part of the year, especially in North America.

It is important to mention that the numbers of the middle of last year were unusually high thanks to the inaugural residence of U2 in the Sphere, which generated 231.6 million dollars in 38 shows during that time. This monitoring period also included dozens of concerts of three important tours (Madonna, P! NK and Luis Miguel) that led to a high number of shows.

CHART statistics: Three acts in the Top 10 of 2025 in the middle of the year – Coldplay, P! NK and the Eagles – also appeared in the Top 10 in the middle of the year in 2024. And three others in the Top 10 – Paul McCartney, Bruno Mars and Seventen – were among the 20 main in the middle of the year in 2024. But there are some notable differences in the musical genres in the cima of the chart.

After three Latin tours, they reached the top 10 in the middle of the year in 2024, Shakira has achieved it in 2025. And after Travis Scott occupied No. 9 in the middle of the year in 2024, no hip-hop artist arrived at Top 10 in 2025. The hyp-hop tour better positioned in the middle of this year is that of Tyler, The Creator, who is in no. $ 65.3 million collected.

As for ticket prices, the Eagles in the Sphere had the highest average price among the 10 main tours, $ 285 per ticket, followed by Usher, who charged an average of $ 179, and p! NK, whose tickets averaged $ 174.

The cheapest tickets among the 10 main tours were Coldplay (109 dollars), Mars ($ 118) and McCartney ($ 129). On average, the price of the tickets of the 50 main tours was $ 130, 10% less than in 2024. In the Top Tours list, 10 acts had an average price of a ticket below $ 100: adventure (99 dollars), Sebastian Maniscalco (98 dollars), André Rieu ($ 94), Deftones (88 dollars), Iron Maiden (85 dollars), Trans-Siberian Orchestra ($ 84), Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds ($ 84), Cody Johnson ($ 77), Feid ($ 77) and Strait (49 dollars).

The Top 10: Reading for more details about the 10 artists with the highest tours income in the Billboard Boxscore report of the middle of the year, which tracks all world -level shows from October 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025