While concerts were canceled during the Covid-19 pandemic and revenues fell to desperate lows, live music came back in full swing in the years that followed – and then some. In the post-Covid age, performers are making a splash with global tours. In 2023, Taylor Swift became the first ever performer to gross over $1 billion for a tour, according to estimates by entertainment magazine Pollstar. That same year, Beyoncé made international headlines too for her sell-out Renaissance World Tour, which was so successful that it even impacted the local economies of the places she played – partly driven by American fans who made the journey to see her perform in Europe, rather than coughing up more money for the high-priced tickets back home.
The following chart looks at how popular live music events are among adults in different countries. Data from Statista’s Consumer Insights shows that Spaniards were particularly likely to buy concert tickets, with one in four respondents having bought one in the past 12 months. This was far less commonplace in South Korea, where only 8 percent of respondents said they had booked a ticket to a music event, concert or festival. The United States falls in the middle at 15 percent of 18 to 64 year-olds.
