Travis Scott wrapped up his Circus Maximus tour on Halloween after more than a year of transcontinental shows. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the trip grossed $209.3 million and sold 1.7 million tickets across 76 dates.
These numbers are huge without qualification, but they are monumental in hip-hop. No solo rapper has sold as many tickets in one tour. Jay-Z previously broke two million while co-headlining the On the Run II tour with Beyoncé in 2018. The only other unaccompanied rapper to bring in more than a million tickets on a single tour is 50 Cent on last year's The Final tour Lap ( 1.1 million), celebrating its 20-year anniversary Get Rich or Die Tryin.'
Although the Circus Maximus tour began in arenas, Scott skipped stadium dates as 2023 moved into 2024. First, among 43 arena shows in the US and Canada, he sold out SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California (12 miles from downtown Los Angeles). And while its European leg started indoors, it smashed stadiums in London, Cologne and Milan, selling more than 71,000 tickets in the latter city.
Stadiums in Sao Paulo, Mexico City, New York and across Oceania followed. The tour's final nine shows in September and October brought in 415,000 tickets, or 24% of the tour's total attendance, despite accounting for just 12% of the tour's shows.
Melbourne, Australia was the biggest stop on Scott's tour. Two shows on October 22-23 grossed $12.6 million and sold 115,000 tickets.
The scale of the Circus Maximus tour – stages on four continents – is unprecedented in hip-hop. 50 Cent and Nicki Minaj, who have each earned $100 million on their own tours over the past two years, played in North America and Europe. Drake, who has crossed the nine-figure mark multiple times, only played in the US and Canada on It's All a Blur. The language barrier for a highly verbal genre could mean extensive touring in Europe and Latin America is difficult, but Scott's global hits and spectacle have helped translate his show to international audiences.
Even stateside, Scott's 2023-24 stadium shows are groundbreaking for rappers. Eminem and Jay-Z have played similar venues, but the former toured alongside Rihanna and the latter toured alongside Beyonce and Justin Timberlake. Eminem and Jay-Z played stages together in 2010 during a commercial boom for both, but only two in Detroit and two in New York on The Home & Home tour.
As a solo artist, Eminem played two shows at Detroit's Ford Field in 2003, plus a show in Hawaii in 2019. He's also a proven stadium seller in Australia and New Zealand. 50 Cent has a reported solo stadium show in Sao Paulo.
Scott's world tour improved on his previous outing in every possible way. Scott sold 53% more tickets per show on The Circus Maximus tour than on Astroworld: Wish You Were Here in 2018-19 (22,494 vs. 14,692), played 20 more shows (76 vs. 55), and had 65 % more per ticket ($122.46 vs $74.43).
Overall, the Circus Maximus tour sold more than double its predecessor's tickets (1.7 million vs. 808,000) and grossed more than three times as much ($209.3 million vs. $60.1 million).
Circus Maximus tour sponsored UtopiaScott's fourth studio album. The set debuted atop the Billboard 200 and stayed there for four weeks and spawned three songs — “Meltdown,” featuring Drake; “FEIN!”, featuring Playboi Carti. and “K-Pop” featuring Bad Bunny and The Weeknd – top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Dating back to a sold-out performance at The Fonda Theater in Los Angeles ($42,000, 1,200 tickets), Scott has grossed $275.3 million and sold 2.6 million tickets.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/travis-scott-sets-record-highest-selling-tour-solo-rapper-circus-maximus/
