The record for biggest concert attendance is held by Vasco Rossi (left) for a ticketed concert and Jean-Michel Jarre and Rod Stewart (right) for a free concert.

This article lists the highest-attended concerts of all time. The oldest 100,000-crowd concert reported to Billboard Boxscore is Grateful Dead's gig at the Raceway Park, Englishtown, New Jersey on September 3, 1977. The concert was attended by 107,019 people, which remains the largest ticketed concert in the United States to date. Frank Sinatra, Tina Turner, and Paul McCartney broke the record respectively in Maracanã Stadium. With an audience of over 184,000 people on April 21, 1990, McCartney's record was broken by a Japanese rock band, Glay, which held a concert with an audience of 200,000 people on July 31, 1999, in Chiba, Japan (Makuhari Parking Lot). GLAY held the record for 6 years. Italian singer Vasco Rossi surpassed the record with his solo concert on July 1, 2017. The concert was a celebration of his 40 years of career.

Although the attendance numbers of free concerts are known to be exaggerations,[1] several concerts have been reported to have a million audience or more. Both Jean-Michel Jarre's concert in Moscow 1997 and Rod Stewart's concert in Copacabana 1994 have been reported to attract audiences of more than 3.5 million people. Jean-Michel Jarre has attracted a live audience of more than a million spectators on five occasions, three times in Paris, 1979, 1990 and 1995, once in Houston, 1986, and once in Moscow, 1997. He is the only artist ever to have done so. Metallica played Moscow in 1991 in front of 1.6 million people.

Highest-attended concerts

Key
* Indicates the concert was the highest-attended of all time up to that point

Single-artist concerts

The following are the highest-attended single artist's ticketed concerts (excluding music festivals) with attendance of 100,000 people or more.

Date Artist Venue City Title Attendance Ref.
1 July 2017 Vasco Rossi * Parco Enzo Ferrari Modena Modena Park 2017 220,000 [2]
28 June 2005 Bijelo Dugme * Belgrade Hippodrome Belgrade 2005 Tour: Sarajevo, Zagreb, Belgrade 220,000 [3]
31 July 1999 Glay * Makuhari Messe Chiba Glay Expo'99 Survival 200,000 [4]
20 April 1990 Paul McCartney * Maracanã Stadium Rio de Janeiro The Paul McCartney World Tour 184,000 [5]
16 January 1988 Tina Turner * Break Every Rule World Tour 180,000 [6][7]
26 January 1980 Frank Sinatra * Frank Sinatra Live 175,000 [6][8]
10 September 2005 Luciano Ligabue Aeroporto di Reggio Emilia Reggio Emilia Campovolo 165,264 [9]
19 July 1988 Bruce Springsteen Radrennbahn Weissensee Berlin Tunnel of Love Express Tour 160,000 [10]
28 June 2013 Ceca Ušće park Belgrade Poziv Tour 150,000 [11]
20 September 1997 U2 Aeroporto di Reggio Emilia Reggio Emilia PopMart Tour 150,000 [12]
18 June 1983 Kiss Maracanã Stadium Rio de Janeiro Creatures of the Night Tour/10th Anniversary Tour 137,000 [13]
20 March 1981 Queen Estádio do Morumbi São Paulo The Game Tour 131,000 [14]
20 August 2022 Helene Fischer Neue Messe München Munich Rausch Live - Die Tour 130,000 [15]


29 August 1987 Madonna Parc de Sceaux Paris Who's That Girl World Tour 130,000 [16]
5 August 1995 The Rolling Stones Strahov Stadium Prague Voodoo Lounge Tour 126,742 [17]
11 September 1988 Michael Jackson Aintree Racecourse Liverpool Bad World Tour 125,000 [18]
7 September 1996 Letná Park Prague HIStory World Tour 125,000 [19]
10 August 1996 Oasis Knebworth Park Stevenage (What's the Story) Morning Glory? Tour 125,000 [20]
[21]
11 August 1996 125,000
1 August 2003 Robbie Williams 2003 Tour 125,000 [22]
2 August 2003 125,000
3 August 2003 125,000
20 May 2022 Vasco Rossi Trentino Music Arena Trento Vasco Live Tour 2022 120,000 [23]
21 March 1981 Queen Estádio do Morumbi São Paulo The Game Tour 120,000 [14]
25 July 1982 The Rolling Stones Roundhay Park Leeds The Rolling Stones European Tour 1982 120,000 [24]
9 August 1986 Queen Knebworth Park Stevenage The Magic Tour 120,000 [25]
6 November 1993 Madonna Maracanã Stadium Rio de Janeiro The Girlie Show World Tour 120,000 [26]
20 September 1996 Michael Jackson Bemowo, Airport Warsaw HIStory World Tour 120,000 [27]
7 September 1994 Pink Floyd Strahov Stadium Prague The Division Bell Tour 115,000 [28]
3 September 1977 Grateful Dead * Raceway Park Englishtown Terrapin Station Tour 107,019 [29]
7 June 2014 George Strait AT&T Stadium Arlington The Cowboy Rides Away Tour 104,793 [30]
30 April 2022 Garth Brooks Tiger Stadium Baton Rouge The Garth Brooks Stadium Tour 102,000 [31]
27 June 1980 Bob Marley and the Wailers San Siro Milan Uprising Tour 100,000 [32]
25 November 2017 Ricky Martin Zócalo Mexico City One World Tour 100,000 [33]
28 March 2007 Shakira Giza Plateau Cairo Oral Fixation Tour 100,000 [34]

Free concerts

The following are free concerts with reported attendance of one million people or more. The first ever was by French artist Jean-Michel Jarre in Paris in 1979, which created the Guinness Book entry.[35] It also includes multi-artist festivals which may not be directly comparable with single-artist concerts. Attendance numbers for many of the kinds of events listed here rely on estimations from the promoters and are known to be exaggerations.[1]

Date Headlining artist Location City Event Attendance Ref.
September 6, 1997 Jean-Michel Jarre * Moscow State University Moscow The 850th Anniversary of Moscow >3,500,000 [36]
December 31, 1994 Rod Stewart * Copacabana Beach Rio de Janeiro New Year's Eve >3,500,000 [37]
December 31, 1993 Jorge Ben Jor * Copacabana Beach Rio de Janeiro New Year's Eve 3,000,000 [38]
July 14, 1990 Jean-Michel Jarre * La Défense Paris Bastille Day 2,500,000 [39]
September 28, 1991 AC/DC, Pantera, Metallica, The Black Crowes, E.S.T. Tushino Airfield Moscow Monsters of Rock 1,600,000 [40][41]
July 2, 2005 Various artists Philadelphia Museum of Art Philadelphia Live 8 1,500,000 [42]
February 18, 2006 The Rolling Stones Copacabana Beach Rio de Janeiro A Bigger Bang 1,500,000 [43][44]
April 5, 1986 Jean-Michel Jarre * Downtown Houston Houston Rendez-vous Houston 1,300,000 [45][46]
September 20, 2009 Various artists Plaza de la Revolución Havana Paz Sin Fronteras II 1,100,000 [47][48]
July 4, 1985 The Beach Boys Philadelphia Museum of Art Philadelphia Independence Day concert 1,000,000 [49]
July 14, 1979 Jean-Michel Jarre * Place de la Concorde Paris Bastille Day 1,000,000 [35]
June 24, 2001 Antonello Venditti Circus Maximus Rome AS Roma's 3rd Serie A victory 1,000,000 [50]
December 31, 2006 The Black Eyed Peas Copacabana Beach Rio de Janeiro New Year's Eve 1,000,000 [51]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Dwyer, Jim (July 23, 2008). "Great Lawn: A Bubble of History Bursts". The New York Times. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  2. ^ Gottfried, Gideon (June 29, 2017). "Rossi Sets Record In Italy". Pollstar. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
  3. ^ "KONCERT "BIJELOG DUGMETA" 2005. NA HIPODROMU : Ozvučenje bilo loše, moraju da vrate pare za karte". www.novosti.rs (in Serbian). Retrieved April 15, 2020.
  4. ^ "10年ぶりの『GLAY EXPO』をＷＯＷＯＷで独占生中継！". Oricon (in Japanese). September 18, 2014. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
  5. ^ "Arts and Media/Music Feats & Facts/Solo Rock Show Crowd". Guinness World Records. May 25, 2006. Archived from the original on May 25, 2006. Retrieved December 9, 2017.((cite web)): CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  6. ^ a b "A record 180,000 turn out for Tina". Chicago Sun-Times. January 18, 1988. Archived from the original on December 16, 2017. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
  7. ^ Company, Johnson Publishing (February 8, 1988). "Jet". Retrieved December 15, 2017 – via Google Books.
  8. ^ Russell, Alan (October 1, 1986). Guinness Book of World Records 1987. Sterling. ISBN 9780806947686. Retrieved December 15, 2017 – via Google Books.
  9. ^ "Italian Singer Ligabue Sets First U.S. Tour". Billboard. September 16, 2014. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
  10. ^ "Springsteen going over Berlin Wall". Chicago Sun-Times. July 13, 1988. Archived from the original on December 10, 2017. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
  11. ^ "CECA ZA ISTORIJU: Spektakl decenije pred 150.000 ljudi!". kurir.rs (in Serbian). Retrieved April 15, 2020.
  12. ^ "'U2: The Ultimate Music Guide' – on sale now - NME". NME. April 29, 2009. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
  13. ^ Weiss, Brett (2016). Encyclopedia of KISS: Music, Personnel, Events and Related Subjects. McFarland & Company. p. 43. ISBN 9780306819209.
  14. ^ a b Henke, James (June 11, 1981). "Queen Holds Court in South America". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on September 9, 2009.
  15. ^ "Helene-Fischer-Konzert in München: Florian Silbereisen sorgt mit Ansage für Gänsehaut". GMX. August 21, 2022. Retrieved August 21, 2022.
  16. ^ Bassets, Luis (August 31, 1987). "Madonna convocó en París a 130.000 personas". El País (in Spanish). Madrid: Jesús de Polanco. Retrieved May 4, 2009.
  17. ^ "Boxscore Top 10 Concert Grosses" (PDF). Billboard. August 19, 2017. p. 10. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
  18. ^ Wright, Jade (June 27, 2009). "Michael Jackson Liverpool's gig in 1988: Unique star, unique date". liverpoolecho. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  19. ^ "Michael Jackson Statue Plans Draw Protests by Czechs". CBS News. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
  20. ^ "No maybe about it, Manchester's Oasis definitely were supersonic". Belfasttelegraph. Retrieved December 9, 2017 – via The Belfast Telegraph.
  21. ^ Savage, Mark (August 10, 2016). "Oasis at Knebworth: 20 years since Britpop's biggest gigs". BBC. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
  22. ^ Hamilton, James (August 3, 2003). "Robbie gigs make music history and traffic misery". The Sunday Herald. Archived from the original on December 9, 2017. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
  23. ^ "Vasco Rossi, a Trento la carica dei 120.000 per il ritorno del rocker dopo la pandemia". May 19, 2022.
  24. ^ "Andy Kershaw: The Rolling Stones Guide To Painting And Decorating". sabotagetimes.com. Archived from the original on June 18, 2018. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
  25. ^ Michaels, Sean (February 21, 2012). "Queen's show goes on as Adam Lambert replaces Freddie Mercury". The Guardian. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
  26. ^ "Madonna Concert Draws 120,000". The Buffalo News. November 8, 1993. Archived from the original on November 29, 2017. Retrieved November 29, 2017.((cite news)): CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  27. ^ "Polish bishop sees Michael Jackson's visit as a sign of decline". Presbyterian Record. December 1, 1996. Archived from the original on December 9, 2017. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
  28. ^ "TOP 4 Největší hudební koncerty v historii České republiky!". iDNES.cz. January 4, 2017. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
  29. ^ "Billboard Top Boxoffice" (PDF). Billboard. September 17, 2017. p. 39. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
  30. ^ "Attendance Records Shattered After George Strait Concert". www.dallascowboys.com. June 11, 2014. Retrieved September 19, 2019.
  31. ^ "Watch: Garth Brooks plays 'Callin' Baton Rouge' for more than 102,000 fans at Tiger Stadium". The Advocate. May 1, 2022. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
  32. ^ Lamorte, Antonio (June 26, 2020). "Pino Daniele and Bob Marley at the San Siro: the historic concert in Milan 40 years ago". Il Riformista. Retrieved December 17, 2021.
  33. ^ "Ricky Martin's Concert in Mexico City Draws More Than 100,000 Fans: See Photos". November 27, 2017. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
  34. ^ "10 International Artists Who Performed At The Pyramids". Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  35. ^ a b List of Jean-Michel Jarre concerts
  36. ^ "JEAN-MICHEL'S UP FOR THE CUP; Rock Star Jean-Michel Jarre Recalls His Friendship with Princess Diana and Picks His France 98 Winners". The Mirror. Archived from the original on December 16, 2017. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
  37. ^ "Arts and Media/Music Feats & Facts/Huge Free Gig". Guinness World Records. May 25, 2006. Archived from the original on May 25, 2006. Retrieved December 14, 2017.((cite web)): CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  38. ^ McWhirter, Norris (January 3, 1953). "The Guinness Book of Records 1993". Retrieved October 3, 2019.
  39. ^ McWhirter, Norris (December 14, 1993). The Guinness Book of Records 1993. Bantam Books. ISBN 9780553562576. Retrieved December 14, 2017 – via Internet Archive. Jean-Michel Jarre concert Guinness.
  40. ^ Smith, Nathan (August 9, 2012). "No Fences: Garth Brooks & the Fuzzy Math of 10 Mega-Concerts". houstonpress.com. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
  41. ^ Publicity, Brian Bumbery (May 29, 2014). "Metallica's "Black Album" Sets New Sales Record". globenewswire.com. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
  42. ^ Sarah Lyall (July 3, 2005). "Musical Cry to Help Africa's Poor Is Heard Around Globe". The New York Times. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  43. ^ Rohter, Larry (February 19, 2006). "The Stones Rock 1.5 Million in Rio Days Before Carnival". The New York Times. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  44. ^ "Rolling Stones hold giant Rio gig". BBC. February 19, 2006. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
  45. ^ Hawkins, Jonathan. "The tragic triumph of the world's largest concert". CNN. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
  46. ^ Hughes, Alex; Reader, Keith (March 11, 2002). Encyclopedia of Contemporary French Culture. Routledge. ISBN 9781134788668. Retrieved December 14, 2017 – via Google Books.
  47. ^ "Hundreds of thousands attend Cuba 'peace concert'". CNN. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
  48. ^ "Juanes' Cuba Concert Details Announced". Billboard. September 10, 2009. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
  49. ^ "Annals of Music - The Beach Boys". Pop History Dig. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  50. ^ "la Repubblica/sport: Un milione al Circo Massimo per la notte giallorossa". www.repubblica.it. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
  51. ^ "PÚBLICO VAI AO DELÍRIO COM O GRUPO BLACK EYED PEAS". www.globo.com. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
Categories