Paul McCartney Got Back to the Top of the Touring Chart With $51 Million-Plus Gross in November

Paul McCartney Got Back to the Top of the Touring Chart With $51 Million-Plus Gross in November It's his first month at No. 1 since 2022. Earlier in December, Billboard reported on rock’s ongoing decline to an all-time low in 2025, as its long-held dominance is challenged by an increasingly young slate of stadium headliners. But as we approach 2026, the genre is fighting back, returning to the top of the monthly Boxscore report. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Paul McCartney grossed $51.7 million and sold 150,000 tickets across 11 shows in November, earning the highest grossing tour of the month. It’s his second time at No. 1, after leading in May 2022. Even though McCartney’s last triumph was three and a half years ago, it’s all contributing to the same tour. He launched the Got Back Tour in April of 2022, and has continued with legs in the fall of 2023, 2024 and now 2025. Altogether, the tour has earned $410.7 million and sold 2.4 million tickets. Both of McCartney’s monthly victories were from shows in the United States, but Got Back has been a global affair. In between the tour’s book-ending domestic legs, he went to Australia ($37.3 million) and Brazil ($36.3 million) in 2023, Latin America ($59.1 million) and Europe ($23.8 million) in 2024, and repeated in Mexico in both of those years ($37.9 million). Since returning to the states in September, McCartney has added $114.7 million and 400,000 tickets to the tour’s lofty totals. His November routing included two double-headers, grossing $9.1 million in Atlanta on Nov. 2-3 and $12.3 million in Chicago on Nov. 24-25. Now beyond the $400 million and 2 million ticket thresholds, Got Back is the highest grossing and bestselling tour of McCartney’s career. He has always been a reliable sell-out act, but has typically broken out his tours into one- or two-year endeavors. The ongoing post-COVID set is seemingly indefatigable, with stronger results in 2025 than its initial run in 2022. The rock revival continues, with Metallica at No. 2 on Top Tours, grossing $41.5 million from 334,000 tickets sold. The band’s November included five shows in Australia and one in New Zealand. Sydney proved the standout, bringing in $9.1 million and 71,800 tickets at Accor Stadium on Nov. 15. This is part of the ongoing M72 World Tour, which launched in April 2023, and has earned $475.8 million from 4.1 million tickets so far, including one additional date in Bahrain on Dec. 3. Like for McCartney, this is Metallica’s highest grossing and bestselling tour in the Boxscore archives, surpassing $324.9 million and 3.2 million tickets on the WorldWired Tour (2016-19). Recent reports have sent total career figures for both McCartney and Metallica above $1.3 billion. They are two of just 20 acts in Boxscore history who have reported grosses of more than $1 billion. Pop acts - specifically women in pop - fill much of the top 10, including Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga at Nos. 3-4, respectively....

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