The Touring Boom Has Latin Pop and K-Pop on Top

Live music had a record first half of 2026, and the top of the chart no longer looks like the one from five years ago. Pollstar's mid-year ranking of the Top 100 Worldwide Touring Artists, which covers shows played between Nov. 13, 2025 and May 13, 2026, is led by a Puerto Rican rapper and singer. A Korean group that reunited this year sits third. An Australian rock band, a British singer-songwriter on a stadium run, a Las Vegas residency and Bruce Springsteen fill out the rest of the first ten.

The totals first. The top 100 artists grossed $3.16 billion in the period, which is 12.3 percent more than the $2.81 billion of 2025 and higher than the $3.07 billion Pollstar recorded at mid-year 2024, a year the magazine calls the apex of the post-pandemic "Golden Age." Those artists sold 26,347,656 tickets, up 12.8 percent from 23.4 million a year earlier. Pollstar's own headline asks "What Blue Dot Fever?", and its answer is that the sky is far from falling.

One tour above a million tickets

Bad Bunny's DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS World Tour is No. 1 with $225.2 million from 27 concerts in Latin America, Australia and Europe. Its 1,496,735 tickets make it the only tour of the period past the million mark. Pollstar says he is the first Latin artist to gross more than $1 billion in his career. Billboard, which counts a different window, from Oct. 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026, puts him second at $230.3 million, just behind Lady Gaga at $236.2 million, and notes that his 1.5 million tickets are the biggest reported midyear count in 15 years, since U2 sold 1.642 million in 2011.

The single most striking number in Billboard's report is local. His stand at Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City ran eight shows from Dec. 10 to 21 and grossed $88 million from 518,000 tickets. That is one venue, one city, one December.

The rest of the Latin field backs up the point. Peso Pluma's Dinastía trek sits at No. 11 with $58.4 million from 475,361 tickets. Shakira's Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour is No. 20 at $45.4 million, which Pollstar describes as the highest-grossing trek by a female Latin solo act.

Gaga, BTS and the stadium arithmetic

Lady Gaga's The Mayhem Ball is second on Pollstar's list at $209.4 million, the only other tour past $200 million. It began last July and ended on April 13 at New York's Madison Square Garden, in front of a capacity 13,690. Over 41 shows on four continents it sold 982,530 tickets. Billboard's longer window counts 52 shows and $236.2 million, which is why the two trade papers disagree on the order of the top two. Neither is wrong. They are measuring different weeks.

BTS is third with $139.7 million from 661,216 tickets at 13 concerts of the Arirang World Tour, which opened on April 9 in Goyang, South Korea. It is the only headliner in Pollstar's top ten averaging more than $10 million per show. That average is the figure to watch. Thirteen shows is a short run, and the group's North American leg continues beyond the cutoff. In North America alone, BTS tops the mid-year chart at $104.2 million, ahead of Gaga at $87.4 million and Bad Bunny at $85.3 million.

Then the older acts. AC/DC's Power Up stadium tour is fourth at $120.3 million from 907,831 tickets at 15 shows. Ultimate Classic Rock reports an average ticket of $132 for the band. Ed Sheeran's Loop Tour is fifth at $105.2 million, 811,233 tickets and 21 concerts, mostly stadiums in Oceania and Latin America. SEVENTEEN is sixth at $75.9 million from 18 concerts on a seven-month New World Tour that ended on April 5.

What the chart says about the business

Cardi B's Little Miss Drama Tour, seventh at $72.1 million, was her first full arena tour, and it played North American arenas from February through April. The Eagles are eighth at $69.7 million with a Sphere residency in Las Vegas, at an average of $296 a ticket according to Ultimate Classic Rock. The Trans-Siberian Orchestra is ninth at $60.4 million, but it needed 109 performances to get there, at an average of $78. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band close the top ten at $58.5 million from 14 shows and 229,678 tickets.

Read the list by price and volume and three business models appear. The first is the global stadium, at an average ticket of $132 for AC/DC and more for the pop acts. The second is the residency or short run at premium prices, such as the Eagles or Springsteen. The third is the volume play, where a seasonal show multiplies small gates, as the Trans-Siberian Orchestra does.

Pollstar adds a caution. North American grosses were flat at $1.92 billion, up 0.1 percent, with tickets up 2.5 percent. Per-show averages fell by single digits, offset by more shows. The growth is global, and two of the top three tours belong to artists who sing mostly in Spanish and Korean. Pollstar also notes that some artists, especially those without a major hit or top album in years, will feel the soft spots in demand.

For a reader in New York, the practical lesson is about where the crowds are going: a run of eight stadium nights in Mexico City, a tour opener in Goyang, and arenas that fill for artists whose catalogues are sung in Spanish and Korean. The Garden still closes tours. It is not where they begin.

FAQ

Who had the top tour of 2026 so far?

Bad Bunny, according to Pollstar's mid-year chart, with $225.2 million from 27 shows. Billboard's report, which covers an earlier window, ranks Lady Gaga first at $236.2 million.

Why do Pollstar and Billboard list different totals?

They count different periods and use reported box-office data. Pollstar covers Nov. 13, 2025 to May 13, 2026. Billboard covers Oct. 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026.

How much did the top 100 tours gross?

Pollstar reports $3.16 billion for the period, up 12.3 percent from 2025.

Are ticket prices the whole story?

No. Pollstar says per-show averages dropped by single digits while the number of shows rose.

Sources

*Cover photo: Comecoquito, Wikimedia Commons, *[*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bad_Bunny_Performs.jpg*](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bad_Bunny_Performs.jpg)* (CC0).*