Harry Styles has been on tour for over a year now. He kicked off Love on Tour in Las Vegas on Sept. 4, 2021, and played for three months around the country. Then he played two months of shows in Europe over the summer of 2022 before he returned to North America.
“Tour” is a funny word for Styles’ last three months of performances. Yes, he played many concerts in quick succession. Yes, he moved from city to city, playing to hundreds of thousands of fans in major markets. But while his pop chart competition played one or two shows at each venue, hitting 20, 30 or 40-plus stadiums and arenas, Styles played extended batches of shows in a handful of A-markets.
After a pair of shows in Toronto, he settled in at New York’s Madison Square Garden for 15 shows at the iconic arena, stretching from Aug. 20 to Sept. 21. The strength of his ticket sales there set records that defy qualification. His monthlong run isn’t just the highest grossing engagement for a British artist, or for a male artist, or for a former boy-band member, and not even just the biggest for any at that venue.
According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Styles’ 15 shows at MSG grossed $63.1 million and sold 277,000 tickets, enough to be the highest grossing headline engagement in Boxscore’s three-decade-plus history.
Given his all-time standing, Styles’ MSG mini-residency naturally leads Billboard’s year-end Top Boxscores chart, ranking individual concerts, but grouping together performances by an artist at one venue. He is followed by Ed Sheeran’s five shows at London’s Wembley Stadium (July 24-July 1; $37.2 million), BTS’ four shows at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas (April 8-16; $35.9 million), San Francisco’s Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival (April 5-7; $33.9 million) and BTS’ four-show run at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. (Nov. 27-Dec. 2, 2021; $33.3 million).
Overall, Styles eclipses Take That, who previously owned the top two Boxscores of all time. Relatives of Styles’ British boy-band family, the group played eight shows at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium on June 3-12, 2011, earning $44.2 million. Weeks later, it ran another eight shows at Wembley Stadium from June 30-July 9, establishing a decade-long record with $61.7 million in the bank.
By a sliver of less than $1.4 million — or 2.25% — Styles takes the all-time title by playing nearly double the shows as Take That in a venue a quarter the size of Wembley Stadium. He averaged $4.2 million and 18,457 tickets per show in New York, while Take That paced $7.7 million and 77,967 tickets in London. While Styles owns the all-time gross record, Take That’s gargantuan ticket total of 623,737 secures the eight-show run as the most attended Boxscore of all time.
It would have been enough for Styles to go home after 15 nights at the Garden – those shows’ $63.1 million total nearly matches the $63.7 million that he grossed on his entire 2017-2018 Live on Tour. But he soldiered on. In addition to the opening two shows in Toronto, he played six in Austin, another six in Chicago, and 12 in Inglewood, Calif. (There were 15 shows scheduled in Inglewood, but three were rescheduled to January 2023 due to health issues.)
His Inglewood shows at Kia Forum have grossed $38.1 million, enough to be the fifth highest grossing Boxscore of all time, behind the MSG concerts, the two Take That runs, and a 10-show sweep by Bruce Springsteen at Giants Stadium in New Jersey (July 15-Aug. 31, 2003; $38.7 million). Including the three Inglewood shows to come early next year, that lump sum will likely move into third place. (The first six of those shows count toward his 2022 year-end standings, and the remaining nine will count toward 2023 charts).
Altogether, the mini-residency leg of Love on Tour has grossed $147.7 million and sold 717,000 tickets, bulking the entire tour’s totals to $298.4 million and 2.1 million. Like his MSG gross, that number also defies qualification. Love on Tour is not only the biggest tour of Styles’ solo career, but passes One Direction’s Where We Are Tour ($290.2 million), which was No. 1 on Billboard’s 2014 Top Tours chart, to become the biggest tour that he has ever hand a hand in.
In addition to the remaining three California shows, Love on Tour continues with a Latin American leg that wraps on Dec. 14 in Sao Paulo. Styles will hit Oceania and Asia in February and March, and European stadiums later in the spring.
