The typical album cycle in recent years: drop a single, announce a handful of concerts, set a release date, encounter a global pandemic, wait two years for the touring industry to allow your world tour to play. Thirty months after tickets went on sale, Lady Gaga has wrapped The much-bigger-than-originally-planned Chromatica Ball to the tune of $112.4 million and 834,000 tickets, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore.
The original incarnation of The Chromatica Ball was a set of two European shows (Paris on July 24, 2020 and London on July 30) and four North American shows (Boston on Aug. 5, Toronto on Aug. 9, Chicago on Aug. 14, and East Rutherford, N.J., on Aug. 19). Delayed once to 2021 and again to 2022, the tour expanded from six shows to 20, playing five markets in Europe (including two shows in London), 11 in North America and a double-header in Tokyo.
Much like Harry Styles and Dua Lipa, being forced to push her shows to 2022 by the pandemic yielded heightened anticipation rather than attention-span malaise. Gaga swept through Germany, Sweden, France, the Netherlands and England, earning $28.3 million from six shows in July. She followed with a North American leg that earned $72.6 million in July and August, plus two shows in Tokyo that generated $11.5 million on Sept. 3-4.
Gaga set a handful of local records along the way, claiming the highest gross in Hershey Park Stadium’s history. Among single-night engagements, she has the all-time top gross at San Francisco’s Oracle Park ($7.4 million), top attendance at Boston’s Fenway Park (38,267), and gross and attendance at Chicago’s Wrigley Field ($6.9 million; 43,019). The only event with a larger gross at L.A.’s Dodger Stadium was 2017’s The Classic West, the two-day classic rock super-festival headlined by the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac.
The Chromatica Ball was Gaga’s first all-stadium run, but it wasn’t her first dip in the pond. As early as The Monster Ball (2009-11), the pop shapeshifter played stadiums in multiple Mexican markets, selling out two nights at Mexico City’s Foro Sol with 111,000 tickets sold.
Gaga’s stadium ambition spread throughout Asia, Europe, South America and Africa on The Born This Way Ball (2012-13) and ArtRave: The Artpop Ball (2014), mixed with arenas on each continent, and exclusively indoor venues in North America. Conversely, The Joanne Ball (2017-18) mixed arenas and stadiums in North America but stuck to arenas for its limited European run.
Despite its 2022 expansion, The Chromatica Ball was relatively brief compared to her previous tours. But moving to stadiums allowed Gaga to maximize her nightly audience, averaging 41,700 tickets per night, up 127% from her previous best of 18,400 on The Born This Way Ball. In nightly revenue, The Chromatica Ball leapt by 190% to a pace of $5.6 million, passing The Joanne Ball’s $1.9 million.
At just 20 shows, The Chromatica Ball became Gaga’s highest grossing tour in a decade, and marked her third $100 million-dollar tour, following The Monster Ball and The Born This Way Ball.
In all, Lady Gaga has a reported career gross of $689.5 million and attendance of 6.3 million.
