Elton John's Farewell Tour Is The Highest-Grossing Tour Of All Time

Elton John has been dashing across the globe since 2018 (with a quick break in between for the pandemic), completing the Yellow Brick Road Farewell tour - his last jaunt before retiring from touring forever. 

Little did he know that his final tour would also be his most successful financially, bringing in a whopping 812.9 million dollars (he's not done yet) across 278 shows, breaking the Billboard Boxscore record. 

John has succeeded in bypassing Ed Sheeran's The Divide Tour ($776.4 million), which set the record in 2019 towards the end of Sheeran's 258-show run, which replaced U2's The 360 Tour ($736.4 million). It's the first tour in Billboard history to cross the $800 million benchmark. 

It's unclear if Billboard considers the impact of inflation, considering that U2's The 360 Tour took place in 2009 and would be worth a considerable amount more today. Either way, it's a significant feat for John, and his tour has easily cracked that 800 million-dollar benchmark. 

Sorting by tickets sold, the Tiny Dancer singer still has a way to go if he wants to reach the all-time ranking. His current tour has sold 5.3 million tickets, ranked behind Sheeran for his Divide Tour (8.9 million tickets sold) in addition to U2's The 360 Tour (7.2 million tickets sold), The Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge Tour (6.5 million tickets sold) and Coldplay's A Head Full Of Dreams Tour (5.38 million tickets sold).

While it might be impossible for John to reach the summit of the all-time ticket list, his final leg of the Yellow Brick Road Farwell tour will allow him to pass Coldplay and sit comfortably at number four. 

More importantly, John has also reached the top of another list just as impressive - he has the highest career gross and attendance for a solo artist in Boxscore history. Including his world tours and co-headline tours with Eric Clapton, James Taylor, Tina Turner and the numerous ones with Billy Joel, John has grossed $1.863 Billion and sold 19.9 million tickets over 1,573 reported shows. He surpassed Bruce Springsteen and Madonna while on his current tour.