End-of-year reports from trade magazines as Pollstar and Billboard showed Australia continues to play a significant role in the international live sector.
As Pollstar remarked, “The global concert business remains robust, thriving and, with sports, the premier form of entertainment in the world, both in terms of value, or pricing, and willingness to pay a premium, or popularity.”
There were 24,383 shows around the world in 2025, up 4.3% from 23,380 in 2024. They totalled US$7.6 billion, up 8.64% from $7 billion in 2024. Ticket sales went up 33%, to 90.1 million from 87.2 million.
The total gross of the Top 100 Tours worldwide in 2025 was US $8.9 billion and 67 million tickets sold.
It was actually a slight dip from 2024, when the gross was $9.5 billion (down 6.1%) and 70 million tickets (down 3.7%). But nevertheless, the live sector remains the darling of investors.
Australian Promoters
Between November 11, 2024 and December 11, 2025, the top five best performing Australian promoters jointly grossed $605.47 million and sold 1, 914, 110 tickets.
This is actually a conservative figure as data from Live Nation ANZ is included, as per company policy, in the global company’s. Live Nation topped the International Promoters list, with $8.36 billion turnover and tix sales of 76.7 million.
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In Pollstar’s mid-year Australian and New Zealand Spotlight, Live Nation ANZ had already topped the Australian Promoters list with a gross of $312,166,481 and ticket sales of 2.7 million.
In the end-of-year 2025 list, TEG Live ranked #8 globally with ticket sales of 2.96 million that turned over revenue of 264. 33 million.
Frontier Touring ranked #18 grossing $169.37 million and shifting 1.65 million stubs.
At #44 was Destroy All Lines, turning over $65.26 million from 749,336 consumer transactions.
Untitled Group, at #47, shifted 680, 791 sales and a gross of $62.38 million.
MG Live, with a trade of 483, 979 tickets and a $44.13 million gross, was ranked #63 in the world.
Michael Coppel, Chairman of Live Nation ANZ earlier told this writer how the company’s biggest success story, Pink, “took up to five tours to get from arenas to stadiums. Now you’re virtually seeing artists coming in at stadium level, or do three or four arena shows, which is the equivalent of a stadium show.”
“The current generation of singer songwriters as the Billie Eilishes, the Olivia Rodriguezes, the Gracie Abrams, the Sabrina Carpenters and Charlie XCXs, they are going straight to arenas doing multiple shows on their first tours.”
Generational Change
The generational change in Australian live music fans was reflected when MG Live’s Fridayz Live returned after a year off to its biggest story yet.
Over two weeks in October and four shows, headlined by Mariah Carey and Pitbull, it drew 160,000 punters and 125 million impressions in social media reach from user-generated content alone.
Earlier targeting the 30–40 demographic, the festival reported 40% of attendees were aged 18—30. Matt Gudinski, CEO of the Mushroom Group and head of MG Live, called it “a real evolution for Fridayz Live. We positioned the event to a whole new market, which gave it a new lease on life. It’s set a platform for a very exciting future.”
What’s exciting for Australian festivals is how they are learning from overseas counterparts to grow their audiences and technology. The latest issue of UK magazine IQ acknowledges this.
“European festivals have had a huge impact on festivals globally, especially in Australia,” said Untitled Group’s Filippo Palermo. “One of the most striking differences we’ve noticed is in the permitting process and what’s possible within festival builds.
“That diversity is key. It offers a set of examples other markets can cherry pick from and adapt, rather than a single template to copy. We’re always looking to improve and push the local event scene forward.”
Palermo added: “A great example of direct inspiration for us is Beyond The Valley’s Dance Dome (specially created for the EDM experience) which was born from ideas and production styles we encountered at European festivals.”
Venues
Australian venues were also making waves internationally.
The Forum in Melbourne was a notable example, ranked #3 in the world of Clubs. It grossed 10.51 million and reached 201,396 customers.
Also doing well on the Clubs list were Melbourne’s Northcote Theatre at #21 ($4.90 million turnover, 98,795 seats) and 170 Russell in the CBD at #27 ($4.27 million sales, 119,754 tickets).
Also on the list were Brisbane’s The Triffid, Adelaide’s The Gov, the Brisbane Powerhouse, and Ice Cream Factory in Perth.
In the list of best grossing Arenas, Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena was another high achiever. It ranked at #7, with a gross of $128. 42 million and an astounding ticket tally of 1.18 million.
Three others also made their presence felt:
#38. Brisbane Entertainment Centre: $57.58 million turnover with 600,672 tickets.
#44. RAC Arena, Perth: $50.40 million gross with 516,238 sales.
#46. Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne: $49.81 million gross and 467,681 tickets.
Also in the Top 200 were Adelaide Entertainment Centre and Hordern Pavilion, Sydney.
Four stadiums made the cut in their category.
#33. Marvel Stadium, Melbourne: $37.54 million revenue and 288,169 tickets.
#62. Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne: $25.20 million turnover, 200,043 stubs.
#80. Accor Stadium, Sydney: gross of $18.35 million with 138,146 tickets.
#81. ENGIIE Stadium, Sydney: $18.27 million turnover, 118,566 tickets.
In the Theatre Top 100, ICC Sydney was the sole Australian entry, reaching #71 after reaching 10,999 patrons and income of $8.24 million.
Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl also had a significant year, up to #14 of Amphitheatres with a turnover of $14.84 million from 197,250 sales.
In this category, Brisbane Riverstage listed at #41, drawing 106,784 and clicking over $6.89 million.
Top 5 Grossing Artists of 2025
It must be remembered that some of these artists began their world tours in 2024 or before.
Beyoncé: $407.6 million, 1.59 million tickets.
Oasis: $405.42 million, 2.28 million tickets.
Coldplay: $300. 48 million, 1.9 million tickets.
Kendrick Lamar/SZA: $359.70 million, 1.78 million tickets.
Shakira: $320.20 million, 2.47 million tickets.
Four Australian acts made the grade. Again, remember, AC/DC data is for 2025 only.
#28. AC/DC: $86.75 million, 554,233 tickets.
#56. Kylie Minogue: $51 million, 396. 521 tickets.
#64. RÜFÜS DU SOL: $47.1 million, 590, 184 tickets.
#156. Keith Urban: $14.7 million, 307, 516 tickets.
K-Pop
Billboard’s end of year report highlighted the growing globalisation of K-Pop acts. They accounted for 7.7% of the Top 100 tour grosses, up from 5.1% in 2023.
At the same time, animated film KPop Demon Hunters was a blitz-up on Netflix. It was the platform’s most-watched film ever with 300 million views, and credited with lifting Netflix's revenue by 17%.
The biggest K-Pop tour was Dominate World Tour by Stray Kids, which added $185.7 million to their collective bank account from 1.3 million fans.
In second spot was Seventeen’s Right Here World Tour with generated $142.4 million from 964,000 ticket sales.
J-Hope’s Hope On The Stage Tour attracted 504,000 fans and made $79.9 million.
ENHYPEN’s Walk The Line Tour actually drew more people (556,000) but earned less ($76.1 million)
Ateez’s 2025 World Tour (In Your Fantasy) had a $70 million turnover with 400,000 fans through the turnstiles.
In Australia, Live Nation reported that Twice’s This Is For You tour had officially become the best-selling K-Pop tour in Oceania after it sold 50,000 tickets in Melbourne and Sydney. This outsold all K-Pop visits in the past.
Live Nation ANZ promoter Wenona Lok called fan response to the act “incredible”. She added,
“This level of excitement from fans right across Australia really speaks to TWICE’s impact and how far K-Pop has come here.”
2026 is already off to a strong start. Its biggest act BTS this week announced it is dropping a new album on March 20, and following it up with its first world tour in four years after fulfilling mandatory military service in South Korea.
Before the announcement through Weverse, BTS members sent hand-written notes to fans’ homes. Members without active Weverse subscriptions will be sent digital copies by the end of January.
A test-case for the Australian market is the inaugural K-Pop festival Hello Melbourne at Flemington Racecourse on March 14.
A team-up between Asia’s Applewood and Australia’s Untitled Group it stars the bands ENHYPEN and TREASURE, and singer-songwriter Taemin.
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
