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-ha in 1991 during the Rock in Rio, when they drew about 198,000 people with tickets. Their 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 McCartney's 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.
* | Indicates the concert was the highest-attended of all time up to that point |
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 | 225,173 | [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] |
26 January 1991 | A-ha * | Maracanã Stadium | Rio de Janeiro | Rock in Rio festival | 198,000 | [5][6] Guinness World Records |
20 April 1990 | Paul McCartney * | The Paul McCartney World Tour | 184,000 | [7] | ||
16 January 1988 | Tina Turner * | Break Every Rule World Tour | 180,000 | [8][9] | ||
26 January 1980 | Frank Sinatra * | Frank Sinatra Live | 175,000 | [8][10] | ||
10 September 2005 | Luciano Ligabue | Aeroporto di Reggio Emilia | Reggio Emilia | Campovolo | 165,264 | [11] |
19 July 1988 | Bruce Springsteen | Radrennbahn Weissensee | Berlin | Tunnel of Love Express Tour | 160,000 | [12] |
28 June 2013 | Ceca | Ušće park | Belgrade | Poziv Tour | 150,000 | [13] |
20 September 1997 | U2 | Aeroporto di Reggio Emilia | Reggio Emilia | PopMart Tour | 150,000 | [14] |
18 June 1983 | Kiss | Maracanã Stadium | Rio de Janeiro | Creatures of the Night Tour/10th Anniversary Tour | 137,000 | [15] |
20 March 1981 | Queen | Estádio do Morumbi | São Paulo | The Game Tour | 131,000 | [16] |
29 August 1987 | Madonna | Parc de Sceaux | Paris | Who's That Girl World Tour | 130,000 | [17] |
30 Apr 2022 | Garth Brooks | Tiger Stadium | Baton Rouge | The Garth Brooks Stadium Tour | 127,000 | [18] |
5 August 1995 | The Rolling Stones | Strahov Stadium | Prague | Voodoo Lounge Tour | 126,742 | [19] |
11 September 1988 | Michael Jackson | Aintree Racecourse | Liverpool | Bad World Tour | 125,000 | [20] |
7 September 1996 | Michael Jackson | Letná Park | Prague | HIStory World Tour | 125,000 | [21] |
10 August 1996 | Oasis | Knebworth Park | Stevenage | (What's the Story) Morning Glory? Tour | 125,000 | [22] [23] |
11 August 1996 | 125,000 | |||||
1 August 2003 | Robbie Williams | 2003 Tour | 125,000 | [24] | ||
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 | [25] |
21 March 1981 | Queen | Estádio do Morumbi | São Paulo | The Game Tour | 120,000 | [16] |
25 July 1982 | The Rolling Stones | Roundhay Park | Leeds | The Rolling Stones European Tour 1982 | 120,000 | [26] |
9 August 1986 | Queen | Knebworth Park | Stevenage | Magic Tour | 120,000 | [27] |
6 November 1993 | Madonna | Maracanã Stadium | Rio de Janeiro | The Girlie Show World Tour | 120,000 | [28] |
20 September 1996 | Michael Jackson | Bemowo, Airport | Warsaw | HIStory World Tour | 120,000 | [29] |
24 September 2003 | Dave Matthews Band | Central Park | New York City | The Central Park Concert | 120,000 | [citation needed] |
7 September 1994 | Pink Floyd | Strahov Stadium | Prague | The Division Bell Tour | 115,000 | [30] |
3 September 1977 | Grateful Dead * | Raceway Park | Englishtown | Terrapin Station Tour | 107,019 | [31] |
7 June 2014 | George Strait | AT&T Stadium | Arlington | The Cowboy Rides Away Tour | 104,793 | [32] |
27 June 1980 | Bob Marley and the Wailers | San Siro | Milan | Uprising Tour | 100,000 | [33] |
25 November 2017 | Ricky Martin | Zócalo | Mexico City | One World Tour | 100,000 | [34] |
28 March 2007 | Shakira | Giza Plateau | Cairo | Oral Fixation Tour | 100,000 | [35] |
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.[36] 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 * | State University of Moscow | Moscow | The 850th Anniversary of Moscow | >3,500,000 | [37] |
December 31, 1994 | Rod Stewart * | Copacabana Beach | Rio de Janeiro | New Year's Eve | >3,500,000 | [38] |
December 31, 1993 | Jorge Ben Jor * | Copacabana Beach | Rio de Janeiro | New Year's Eve | 3,000,000 | [39] |
July 14, 1990 | Jean-Michel Jarre * | La Défense | Paris | Bastille Day | 2,500,000 | [40] |
September 28, 1991 | AC/DC, Pantera, Metallica, The Black Crowes, E.S.T. | Tushino Airfield | Moscow | Monsters of Rock | 1,600,000 | [41][42] |
July 2, 2005 | Various artists | Philadelphia Museum of Art | Philadelphia | Live 8 | 1,500,000 | [43] |
February 18, 2006 | The Rolling Stones | Copacabana Beach | Rio de Janeiro | A Bigger Bang | 1,500,000 | [44][45] |
April 5, 1986 | Jean-Michel Jarre * | Downtown Houston | Houston | Rendez-vous Houston | 1,300,000 | [46][47] |
September 20, 2009 | Various artists | Plaza de la Revolución | Havana | Paz Sin Fronteras II | 1,100,000 | [48][49] |
July 4, 1985 | The Beach Boys | Philadelphia Museum of Art | Philadelphia | Independence Day concert | 1,000,000 | [50] |
July 14, 1979 | Jean-Michel Jarre * | Place de la Concorde | Paris | Bastille Day | 1,000,000 | [36] |
June 24, 2001 | Antonello Venditti | Circus Maximus | Rome | AS Roma's 3rd Serie A victory | 1,000,000 | [51] |
December 31, 2006 | The Black Eyed Peas | Copacabana Beach | Rio de Janeiro | New Year's Eve | 1,000,000 | |
August 3, 2019 | Kult | Kostrzyn nad Odrą | Pol'And'Rock Festival | ~1,000,000 | [53] |