3 Rock Co-Headline Tours Rank Amongst the 10 Biggest Ever

Did you realize that three co-headline tours from the rock world rank among the 10 biggest co-headline tours ever?

While rock has somewhat been discounted in the pop culture conversation, it still manages to bring fans through the turnstiles. That was evidenced when Billboard recently published their 40 Biggest Co-Headline Tours of All Time feature that pulled from Billboard's boxscore stats of concert attendance.

In order to qualify for the list, Billboard ruled out short tours. Anything under 10 dates was not considered.

What Is the Top Co-Headline Tour Overall?

The pop world, especially in modern day, can really rake it in - especially when it comes to two of the biggest names in soul and rap. Super Bowl halftime performer Kendrick Lamar and SZA currently hold the mark for the biggest box score. It was amassed over their 23-show 2025 tour that grossed $256.4 million while selling 1.1 million tickets.

What About Rock?

You don't need to scroll too far down, as the 2022 Motley Crue / Def Leppard "Stadium Tour" sits third on the list. The package tour that per its name played to stadium crowds and also featured sets from Poison, Joan Jett and newcomers Classless Act over the course of its run.

The tour spanned 35 shows, selling 1.3 million tickets for a gross of $173.5 million. That placed it third behind the Kendrick Lamar / SZA pairing this year and Beyonce and Jay-Z's 2018 On the Run II trek.

But wait, there's two more rock tours of note within the Top 10. Back in 2018, Def Leppard also found another high profile tourmate in fellow '80s rockers Journey. Their co-headline run spanned 60 dates while selling 1 million tickets to the tune of $97.1 million. That was good enough for seventh on the list of biggest co-headlining tours.

Meanwhile, rounding out the Top 10 was actually a triple-bill of co-headliners with Fall Out Boy, Green Day and Weezer uniting for the Hella Mega tour in 2021 and carrying over into 2022. That trek, which saw fans attending 28 dates and selling 967,000 tickets, grossed $92.2 million. That was good enough for tenth on the list.

Other Rock Representation in the Top 40 Co-Headline Tours

As Billboard's list spanned the 40 Biggest Co-Headline Tours, there was still more rock representation throughout the list. Some pairings even turned up multiple times over different years. For instance, Def Leppard and Journey toured together again in 2024 and this time their union placed 13th on the list. And a 2006 pairing of the two acts placed 30th overall.

READ MORE: The Best Ballad By 11 Big Hair Metal Bands

Billy Joel and Elton John meanwhile ate up five spots on the list with their 2009 Face to Face tour being the biggest of them all at No. 11 on the list.

Other rock co-headline tours of note that made the cut included Aerosmith and KISS 2003 Rocksimus Maximus tour at No. 15, Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top's 2023-2024 Sharp Dressed Simple Man Tour at No. 28, Journey and Steve Miller Band's 2014-15 tour at No. 33, The Doobie Brothers and Journey's San Francisco Fest run in 2016 at No. 35 and the Guns N' Roses / Metallica Stadium Tour of 1992 at No. 38.

The full list of the Top 40 Co-Headline Tours of all time complete with their Billboard Boxscore stats can be seen over at Billboard.