In 2024, the top 10 of Billboard’s year-end Top Tours chart included a group of familiar names, with Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, The Rolling Stones and U2 lining up at Nos. 5-7, plus Metallica at No. 10. Familiar, as in 51 combined year-end top 10 appearances dating back to the inaugural list in 1991. This year, none of them appear, coinciding with rock’s worst overall showing in Boxscore history, dating to the first year-end list in 1991.

Among this year’s top 100 tours, 30 are by rock artists. Of the top 100 tours’ combined $9.1 billion gross, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, $2.7 billion, or 30.2% comes from rock acts. That share is down from 36% last year and slips behind the genre’s previous low of 31.8% in 2018.

The figures above show that rock was stronger in 2024 than in 2018, not to mention a post-COVID high of 42.5% in 2022. These numbers ebb and flow from year to year, often impacted by quirks of scheduling as much as industry trends. Still, rock’s loosened grip over the Boxscore charts is a continuation of decades-long decay. On average, the genre represented 65% of the top 100 gross during the 1990s, before dipping to 57% in the 2000s, 43% in the 2010s, and 35% for the 2020s so far.

While rock’s dominance wanes, it isn’t over yet. At 30.2%, it’s still close to double pop’s share and more than double that of country and R&B. In fact, the year’s biggest tour is by a rock band. But even 25 years removed from that band’s debut album, it represents a shift away from classic rock.

Coldplay is No. 1 on the year-end charts for Top Tours (ranked by gross revenue), Top Ticket Sales (ranked by attendance), Top Boxscores (noting individual concert engagements), and by default, Top Rock Tours. Imagine Dragons follows at No. 4 on Top Ticket Sales and No. 7 on Top Tours with 2.1 million tickets sold and $241.6 million. Neither band is brand new, but they are relatively young to be leading their genre, which has long relied on classic rock acts – artists from the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s – to rule the Boxscore charts. Coldplay and Imagine Dragons are firmly 21st-century hitmakers, having made their first Billboard chart appearances in 2000 and 2012, respectively.

Since rock has historically loomed so large over the Top Tours tally, it makes sense that as it skews younger, so does the entire chart. On average, this year’s top 100 touring acts are 45.8 years old. That is younger than it’s been in over a decade, but by a narrow margin. Dating back to 2012, the average age has fluctuated between 45 and 50.

Zeroing in on the top 10, the average age plunges to 37.8 years old, down 31% from last year, below 40 for the first time since 2001, and lower than it’s been in more than 30 years. Coldplay and Shakira are the oldest acts in the top 10, both at 48. Stray Kids bookends the top 10, averaging 26 years among its eight members. Beyoncé and the members of Imagine Dragons are in their 40s, while Chris Brown, Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone, Ed Sheeran, and SZA are in their 30s.

When the top 10 was last this young in 1991-92, the list was stacked with classic rock acts. To state the obvious, 30 years ago, those artists were 30 years younger. The entire industry of contemporary popular music was itself, much younger. But even as these acts have aged and continued to produce chart-topping tours, the average age on Boxscore charts has declined because the slate of arena and stadium acts has diversified, with new stars of pop, hip-hop, K-pop, Latin, and more matching the biggest rock headliners.

Only three of rock’s 30 artists in the top 100 are younger than Imagine Dragons (average age 40): The Lumineers (39), Hozier (35), and Sam Fender (31). On the other hand, the second most prominent genre on the year-end chart – pop, 16.9% of the top 100 grosses – boasts some of the chart’s youngest artists: Benson Boone is 23, and Tate McRae and Olivia Rodrigo are both 22.

With 100 open positions, the year-end Top Tours chart has more than enough room to encompass an expansive group of artists, with rock playing a massive part. Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, and The Who continue to rack up sold-out grosses into their 80s. Metallica and Springsteen sported lighter touring schedules than in 2024 but still finish the year at Nos. 20 and 22, respectively, with Iron Maiden and Eagles both above $150 million. Deftones and System of a Down hit new career highs, 30 years into their careers. 21st century standouts Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance displayed sustained momentum from comebacks earlier this decade. Notably, despite not reporting to Billboard Boxscore, Brit-pop icons Oasis created hysteria in stadiums and breathless buzz online for their long-awaited reunion tour.

The decline of rock music on the charts has been well documented, but it’s been a slower and more stable drop-off when it comes to Boxscore because the Stones, Springsteen, and many more have deep discographies and fan bases with disposable income, able to continue selling out stadiums decades after their last top 40 hits. But as the genre fails to generate new stars at the rate of pop, Latin, and more, where does that leave it?

Rock is not dead. It’s still responsible for more top-100 tours than any other genre, and for the second consecutive year, has the highest-grossing and best-selling tour. But instead of having the entire pie – rock represented the top nine tours in 1992 – it has a reasonable, still huge, piece of it with two of this year’s top 10 acts and 30 of the top 100. It’s encouraging for the entire touring industry that a wide swath of other genres has competitively scaled to stadiums, but rock bands continue to pack the world’s biggest venues in the lineage of the last century’s biggest headliners.

Billboard will again deliver the biggest shows of SXSW when it returns to Austin for Billboard Presents THE STAGE at SXSW 2026.

Happening March 13-15 at the city’s Moody Amphitheater, the event will feature a tour de force of headlining performances from hip-hop titan Don Toliver on March 13, corridos star Junior H on March 14 and Dutch electronic phenom Mau P on March 15. Support acts will be announced in the coming months.

A venue ticket presale is available to those with an exclusive code beginning Wednesday (Dec. 10) at noon CT. General tickets go on sale Friday at 9 a.m. CT, with a reserved amount exclusively for existing SXSW Platinum and Music Badge holders and SXSW Music Festival wristband holders. All tickets are available here.

Additionally at SXSW 2026, Billboard will also introduce the Billboard Disruptor House at Mohawk, a multi-day experience with more programming announcements to come.

“Billboard has always celebrated the music shaping culture, and SXSW continues to be one of the best places to showcase these artists and connect them with fans through unforgettable experiences,” said Billboard CEO Mike Van. “This year’s lineup spans R&B/hip-hop, Música Mexicana, and electronic music, reflecting the breadth of what’s resonating with fans right now. With the debut of our Billboard Disruptor House, we’re excited to create even more spaces for artists, industry, and music lovers to come together in Austin.”

“SXSW couldn’t be more excited to continue our partnership with Billboard and The Stage,” adds Brian Hobbs, VP of Music at SXSW. “Every year they raise the bar by bringing some of the biggest and most exciting artists to Austin. From Música Mexicana to EDM and beyond, SXSW and Billboard continue to champion the sounds and scenes shaping where the industry goes next.”

Billboard will report live throughout SXSW, which takes over Austin from March 12–18, 2026.

Billboard parent company Penske Media acquired a majority stake in SXSW in 2023 and helped expand its reach to three continents, now hosting flagship events in Austin, Sydney and London.

Mariah Carey is the undisputed Queen of Christmas. The pop singer has lorded over the holiday charts for the past six years with her ubiquitous wintertime classic “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” It seems hard to believe it now if you’ve been anywhere near a store since Halloween, but the yuletide favorite that was released in 1994 did not chart until 2000 and did not hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 until 2019, fully 25 years after it first hit our ears.

Now, as the holidays really ramp up, the best-selling Christmas song of all time in the U.S. seems like a no-brainer to top the charts every year. But on Tuesday (Dec. 9), MC gave thanks for how it all started in a throwback video she re-posted from a fan feed of an interview she did in 1994 in which she was asked if she hopes one of the songs from her first holiday album, that year’s Merry Christmas, might some day be as ubiquitous as such standards as “White Christmas” or “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”

“Do you have the hope that one of your songs will be considered a classic one day?” the interviewer asks. “Wouldn’t that be nice, to have a classic Christmas song?”

“I would love it,” says Carey. “I mean I’m not going to be that arrogant as to say, ‘well, you know, this will become a classic or that’s a classic,’ but I’m very happy with them.”

Well, she needn’t have worried, because this week her all-timer jingled its way back to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, leaping up four spots to the top for a record-tying 19th total week at the peak of the chart. “All I Want For Christmas Is You” now matches the runs of two other chart champs: Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” in 2024, and Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, in 2019 — for the longest command over the chart’s 67-year history.

After first hitting the top 10 on the chart in December 2017, and the top five for the first time during the 2018 holiday season, “All I Want” finally reached the pinnacle in 2019 (for three weeks), 2020 (two), 2021 (three), 2022 (four), 2023 (two) and 2024 (four).

In case you haven’t heard it, listen to Carey’s Christmas chart champ below.

Amid Billboard’s expansive suite of year-end charts, six venue rankings track 175 of the highest-grossing concert halls in the world, from general admission clubs to international stadiums. Of those 175 rooms, 116 are in the United States, but Billboard is breaking them down further. Where are they? Where aren’t they? Which cities are the most populated with high-traffic concerts?

Las Vegas and Los Angeles have the highest concentration of year-end charting venues, each with 11. New York follows closely with 10, before San Francisco with nine.

Geographical determinations were based on Neilsen’s designated market area (DMA) regions. Year-end charts are based on figures reported to Billboard Boxscore for shows that took place between Oct. 1, 2024, and Sept. 30, 2025.

Vegas tops two of the six venue charts, at No. 1 on Top Venues (15,001+ capacity) with Sphere, and No. 1 on Top Venues (2,501-5k capacity) with The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. New York takes top honors among venues with a capacity of 5,001-10,000 with midtown Manhattan’s Radio City Music Hall. The other three charts are ruled by a stadium in Mexico City, an arena in Austin, and a theater in Nashville.

All of Vegas’ 11 charting venues are located in the city proper. The 11 for Los Angeles includes four in Inglewood, while New York’s 10 include UBS Arena in Belmont Park (Long Island), Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., and MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

After Vegas, L.A., N.Y.C., and S.F., each with nine, 10, or 11 venues on the year-end charts, there is a drop-off to a quartet of cities that boast five apiece: Atlanta, Boston, Denver, and Washington, D.C. Chicago, Dallas, Miami, and Tampa each have four, followed by Nashville with three.

While three of the top four markets are located in the western half of the U.S., it’s the opposite side that pulls more weight. Spread among 24 markets, 63 of America’s 116 charting venues lie east of the Mississippi river. Ten venues fall in the center of the map, with 43 venues, from just 10 different markets, are on the west.

Hover over each region on the map above for more information.

4 Non Blondes, whose 1993 hit “What’s Up?” went viral on TikTok this year via a mashup with Nick Minaj‘s “Beez in the Trap,” will release a new album next year through Kill Rock Stars, the label tells Billboard, marking the band’s first release in more than three decades.

The as-yet-untitled new album will be released through a new Kill Rock Stars imprint, 670 Records, which the label is co-launching with 4 Non Blondes frontwoman Linda Perry. As part of the agreement, Perry is additionally readying a new solo album, Let It Die Here, also for release through Kill Rock Stars/670 in 2026.

Despite achieving success with “What’s Up?” and the band’s platinum-certified 1992 debut album Bigger, Better, Faster, More!, released by Interscope, 4 Non Blondes disbanded in 1994, leading Perry to embark on a lucrative career as a songwriter and producer for star artists including Christina Aguilera (“Beautiful”), Gwen Stefani (“What You Waiting For?”) and P!nk (“Get the Party Started”). After more than 30 years apart, she recently reunited with founding 4 Non Blondes bassist Christa Hillhouse, as well as drummer Dawn Richardson and guitarist Roger Rocha, both members of the group’s original touring band. This year, the reunited foursome played a handful of shows, with three more set for later this month in L.A. and San Francisco.

“I put my feelers out into the universe,” said Perry in a statement of bringing the band back together, initially by setting up a rehearsal in San Francisco. “Playing some songs with 4 Non Blondes just seemed like a fun thing to do, in a way it hadn’t before now. I’ve been behind the scenes for far too long. I want to step out to be the artist I am. I’m just open to all the possibilities that I’ve created around me. I manifest things all the time.”

Perry added that she subsequently wrote “a bunch of new songs, revisit[ed] some old ones, and bam, we have an album. It’s really that simple. They’re all phenomenal players and now they get a chance to show that. I couldn’t ask for a better band to play these songs.”

In the wake of the band’s reunion, “What’s Up?” enjoyed its viral TikTok moment, with the mashup reaching No. 1 on the platform’s trending song charts and generating more than 3 million user-created videos, according to the label; the track also re-entered Billboard‘s Hot Rock & Alternative songs chart. Celebrities who have participated in the trend include Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, and Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner.

The relationship with Kill Rock Stars arose after the label approached Perry’s team about reissuing her debut solo album, In Flight, on vinyl for this year’s Record Store Day Black Friday. The label says those conversations led to talk of collaborating on new music.

“Our partnership with Linda Perry reflects exactly what Kill Rock Stars stands for,” said Sydney Christensen and Rob Jones of Kill Rock Stars in a joint statement. “Her fearless creativity, her career-long commitment to amplifying authentic voices, and her instinct for nurturing artists align directly with our mission. Perry’s body of work, spanning songwriting, production, and artist development, has inspired us for years, showing how visionary, emotionally honest music can shape generations. We share a deep passion for championing singular talent and creating space for artists to take risks, evolve, and be truly heard.”

Added Perry in a statement on the Kill Rock Stars partnership, “I’m super excited to partner up with Kill Rock Stars for yet another release. Let It Die Here, my new album, needs a dedicated and creative team behind it. For me, releasing music is a very personal and intimate experience so I want to know that the company I’m going on this journey with is supporting art and longevity. I feel very confident saying that John Burk and everyone at Kill Rock Stars are intent on building a company led by architects, sculptors, and musicians.”