March 25 marks Opening Day for Major League Baseball, premiering with a matchup of the New York Yankees at the San Francisco Giants. It also unofficially marks the beginning of stadium season in North America, as (slowly) increasing temperatures allow a sweep of major concert tours to prepare for outdoor performances. Here, Billboard looks at the biggest shows ever at each of the 30 MLB stadiums.
But even though these stadiums are open for business, concerts may still be infrequent. There are so many baseball games: 162 for each team (81 at home), every year. Running from March through October, each venue’s calendar is dominated by ball games, leaving sparse room for A-list headliners to invade alongside their robust production and touring crews. It’s one reason why football stadiums tend to dominate the summer, as the NFL doesn’t begin its regular season until after Labor Day.
Still, some of the biggest cross-generational superstars of live music have looked to baseball stadiums for stops on their sold-out tours, from Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen to Bad Bunny and Beyoncé.
The biggest ever? Just last summer, Coldplay stopped at Toronto’s Rogers Centre for four nights (July 7-8 and 11-12), collectively bringing in $27.6 million from 207,000 tickets sold. There have been nine other instances of $20 million takes and a total of 17 that sold more than 100,000 tickets.
Prior to the pandemic, the highest grossers were The Classic East and The Classic West at New York’s Citi Field and Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium, respectively, headlined by Eagles and Fleetwood Mac in 2017. In the 2000s, Paul McCartney reigned with his 2009 shows at Citi Field. All the way back in the ‘90s, The Rolling Stones held the record with $5.3 million over two nights at Dodger Stadium in November 1997.
Keep reading to see the three biggest Boxscore runs at each of the 30 MLB stadiums. The most prolific artist across all stadiums? Morgan Wallen, appearing on the list for nine stadiums. Gross and attendance figures are combined when acts play repeat shows at the same stadium on the same tour. All data is according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore.