Coldplay score biggest rock tour of all time

Coldplay‘s ‘Music of the Spheres’ tour is officially the highest-grossing rock tour ever.

• READ MORE: Coldplay live at Glastonbury 2024: Worthy Farm’s house band become “100,004 people” strong

According to Billboard Boxscore, the British band’s current tour has grossed $945.7 million and sold 8.8 million tickets since it began in March 2022, making it both the highest-earning and best-selling rock tour since Boxscore‘s records began 40 years ago.

They’ve surpassed a record previously set by Sir Elton John‘s ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour, which earned $939million. The legend achieved this number with 328 shows and five years of touring from September 8, 2018 to July 8, 2023.

At the time, John bypassed Ed Sheeran‘s ‘The Divide Tour’ at the end of 2019, which made $776.4million (£630.5million).

Sheeran previously beat U2’s ‘The 360 Tour’ to the record.

Yet, although they still have 21 more shows to go, it doesn’t seem like Coldplay will surpass Taylor Swift’s colossal ‘Eras Tour’ record any time soon. Swift made history in December when the tour became the first to gross $1billion (£796million).

According to Pollstar, a live entertainment trade magazine Swift sold a “mind-boggling 4.3 million tickets at an average ticket price of $238.95”. They also calculated that the singer grossed roughly $17.3million for an average show for the current leg of her tour.

The ‘Music Of The Spheres’ tour has been praised for “setting a new standard” when it comes to an eco-conscious approach to live music, thanks to a slew of sustainable initiatives introduced by the band.

In June, it was revealed to have already produced 59 per cent less CO2e emissions than their previous stadium tour in 2016 and 2017. This already beats the original target that Chris Martin and co. had set to ensure they beat those of previous tours by 50 per cent.

It has also been revealed that 7million trees have been planted globally thanks to the success of the live shows. This comes as a result of the band promising to have one tree planted for every person who attends the tour.

Yesterday (August 16), Coldplay revealed the full tracklist for their forthcoming 10th studio album ‘Moon Music’. Alongside the announcement, the band also shared a snippet of a new track ‘We Pray’, which features Little Simz and Burna Boy, as well as Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna and Argentine artist Tini, and the band gave it its live debut during their headline set at Glastonbury in June, alongside Simz and Elyanna.

In a four-star review of Coldplay’s record-breaking return to Worthy Farm, NME wrote: “With a run of guest turns, some dad banter and an emotional Michael J. Fox collab, Chris Martin and co. reach to make their fifth headline set one for the books.”

At the start of this year, Coldplay revealed that the forthcoming ‘Moon Music’ was almost finished and called it a “second [2021 album] ‘Music Of The Spheres’ volume”.

Martin spoke to NME in 2021 about the “intense” pressure of releasing new music. “We’re going to make 12 albums. Because it’s a lot to pour everything into making them,” he explained at the time.

“I love it and it’s amazing, but it’s very intense too. I feel like because I know that challenge is finite, making this music doesn’t feel difficult, it feels like, ‘This is what we’re supposed to be doing’.”

Later, the singer said that the plan to only make three more Coldplay records “feels right to us”. Martin added: “I think we’ll keep touring, and we’ll always be together as a group of musicians and friends. But I think the story of our albums ends then.”

In other Coldplay news, they were recently joined on stage by Shawn Mendes in Munich for a version of ‘Fix You’.