It's clear that Metallica is absolutely the biggest metal band in the world… but even beyond that, they're just plain huge across the board. Pollstar just released their Top 10 Worldwide Top Touring Artists list, which found Metallica at No. 9 having grossed $179.3 million in 2024.
To break that down a little, Metallica's average ticket price was $119.64 and the band averaged 62,512 tickets for all their 24 shows. Beating out Metallica by just a few measly tens of millions was Zach Bryan, who grossed $199.1 million. Oh, and of course Taylor Swift came in at No. 1 by a massive margin – she grossed $1.043 billion in touring throughout 2024. Second to Swift was Coldplay, whose gross was $421.7 million. Not even half of Swift.
Interestingly, the North American stats are very different. Metallica didn't make the list, but The Rolling Stones came in at No. 1 having grossed $235 million in touring. The Rolling Stones' average ticket price was $277.28 and the band averaged 47,100 tickets per show… and they only played eight shows. So good on them for doing that well across that few live appearances.
Check out both lists below, thanks to Pollstar.
