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Live Nation tops Pollstar’s 2020 ticket sales chart

Live Nation has come out on top in ticket sales for Pollstar’s 2020 annual mid-year analysis, with almost 6.9 million passes sold.

The Ticketmaster parent company grossed $610m, a fall from $1.2bn in 2019 from 13.5 million tickets sold.

While COVID-19 has sliced sales in almost in half due to cancelled concerts, tours and festivals, the time period of eligibility for the results ranges from November 21, 2019 to May 20, 2020, so there is only an absence of box office results for the final two months of that six-month span.

Live Nation’s average gross per ticket (gross divided by tickets sold) at mid-year this year is $89, roughly the same as last year’s at $87.5.

AEG Presents comes in at No.2 with 1.9 million tickets sold for $181m grossed, with each figure similarly at about half of where it was at mid-year 2019.

Feld Entertainment came in third with 1.57 million tickets sold and OCESA/CIE shifted 1.55 million tickets for fourth place, which is a reverse order from last year.

Feld’s numbers held steady, as they reported 1.7 million tickets sold during the same period in 2019, indicating either most of their business was conducted before mid-March or they had a huge uptick in business in Q1 this year.

Australia-based Frontier Touring Company came in No.5 in ticket sales, with 1,16 million, but it was the third-highest grossing promoter, with $122m grossed.

In the month prior to the COVID-19 live events shutdown, artists such as Elton John, Celine Dion, Eagles, Aventura, Maroon 5, Backstreet Boys, Michael Bublé, Post Malone and Billy Joel all reported multi-million-dollar grosses.

Elton John heads up the worldwide list of Top 100 Tours that in total produced a gross of $1.1bn from 1,654 performances.

With 2020’s revenue from the Top 100 Tours totalling 44.3 per cent less than the worldwide gross in 2019, ticket sales from the same 100 tours also show the same percentage difference. Total ticket count at mid-year 2020 is 12.5 million, 44 per cent fewer than 2019’s total.

On average, ticket sales have also fallen with 2020’s sold tickets averaging 7,543 per show, a decrease of 7.543 in one year. In North American markets, the average gross per show in 2020 came to $596,643 based on a total of 1,333 reported shows. The sold ticket average per show is 6,456.

Image: COD Newsroom