Few, if any, venues on the planet are as unique as Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada, and people turned out in droves to watch events at the state-of-the-art entertainment venue, setting a box office record in the process.
Sphere Is on a Tear
According to Billboard’s Top Venues list, Sphere’s gate receipts not only topped all other entertainment centers with a seating capacity of 15,001 or higher in 2024 but also set an all-time record spanning Billboard’s 50-year history of keeping track of such things. The total gross for the world’s most unique venue was a staggering $420.5 million for the year on ticket sales of 1.3 million.
According to reports, Sphere is the first venue to eclipse the $300 million mark over one year. More to the point, only four touring artists have posted higher numbers than this singular Las Vegas venue, which features a variety of musical acts every day of the year. It even hosted UFC 306, which took in $22 million at the gate, but that was not included in Billboard’s $420.5 million total, as it is not a musical act.
The Rolling Stones in 2006; Ed Sheeran in 2018; Beyoncé in 2023; and Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in 2023 and ’24 are the only acts that have earned more in a single year. The 17,500-seat Sphere sometimes hosts multiple acts in a day and is never dark.
Sphere Executive Chairman and CEO James Dolan is also the CEO of Madison Square Garden Sports and Madison Square Garden Entertainment and executive chairman of MSG Networks. MSG Entertainment is also the owner of the Big Dome in Burbank, California, which is used as a testing ground for future acts at Sphere and not a money-generating venue.
Achtung Baby
And it is there that any kinks and production hiccups are worked out. Sphere’s biggest gate earner in 2024 was “U2: UV Achtung Baby,” which reported $244.5 million in gross sales on 663,000 tickets sold over its 40-show run.
“You feel like you’re at the concert,” Dolan said of the new U2 concert film. “So, you know, we have some great bands that are coming in over the next year. And so I think we will continue to capture their concerts using our Big Sky technology. How we then bring it to the public and market it, I think we’re still trying to figure out what’s the best way.”
Dead and Company was formed in 2015 by former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir (guitar and vocals), Mickey Hart (drums), and Bill Kreutzmann (drums), joined by pop sensation John Mayer (guitar and vocals). The tie-dyed, hippy-dippy group played 30 shows between May 16th and August 10th and generated $131.8 million and sales of 477,000 tickets.
Sphere Las Vegas Expansion
The smashing success of Sphere Las Vegas has attracted the attention of investors in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where a replica of the original is already in the works.
“The vision for Sphere has always included a global network of venues, and today’s announcement is a significant milestone toward that goal,” said Dolan. “Sphere is redefining live entertainment and extending the reach of its transformative impact.”
