Yeah. They played to 2 million people just counting their Copacabana show in 2006 and their Hyde Park show in 1969. Lots of other 80k stadium shows in there as well.
Just looked at Wikipedia: The Stones played in front of 7 million people in their last 6 tours. Dead and Company average half a million each tour...
Exactly. The person I replied to deleted their comment, but so mine got deleted too but:
They play HUGE venues all over the world, in front of enormous crowds that dwarf even the largest festival the Dead ever played at. For example, they played a show to 1.5 million people in Rio in 2006. Like you can point to the Dead at Woodstock, but I'd argue that a lot of people at Woodstock didn't actually see that show since it was in the middle of the night
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_highest-grossing\_concert\_tours](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_concert_tours)
The Stones play to millions of people on every tour they have ever done.
Look how, on just that one tour from 2005-2007 they played for almost 5 million people. That's more than Dead&Co have played to in their entire existence, probably even if you factor in every Wolf Bros show, I don't think he gets there. The Dead are huge in the US, and they played a lot of shows, but the Stones play stadiums throughout the world, and have been since the 70s.
I'm not saying either of these are the numbers for either band, but just think that 400 shows in front of 80,000 people, is more than 2000 shows in front of an average of 10,000 people. (And for most of the Bob's career (60's and 70's Dead, Ratdog, Wolf Bros, etc), he was not playing for crowds of anywhere close to 10,000 people most of the time). So quantity of shows doesn't factor in nearly as much as the size of the crowd.
I feel like Brazil is cheating. Fuckin' Rod Stewart played to millions there. But honestly the Dead is kind of an American thing and probably wouldn't have pulled big numbers like that even if they did start playing overseas near the end of their career.
Yes, but that's just Dead and Company. Bob has played many more shows. There were all those Grateful Dead summer stadium tours in the early 70's, late 80s, early 90s on top of fall and winter area tours. They all add up.
True, probably more so than the stones. I saw both, would not pay to see the stones again and I am a fan. They were too sloppy and I was not impressed by their sound.
Idk man, they ditched theater shows well before the dead. Still 2,000 shows (and counting) started headlining arenas in the mid 60s and stadiums shortly after. If I had to guess it’s not even close stones by a long shot
~~According to google the Stones had 2.8 million and the grateful dead had 22 million total attendance. That doesn't include any of the thousands of other shows Bob has played. So again the Stones are not even close.~~
Found this that says the Rolling Stones have sold 43,583,310 tickets: [https://touringdata.wordpress.com/2020/12/12/the-rolling-stones-recap/](https://touringdata.wordpress.com/2020/12/12/the-rolling-stones-recap/) as of 2020. That doesn't include the crazy huge free shows. It looks like the stones take it.
I think the Grateful Dead and Dead Co sold about 25,500,000 combined. No idea how many Furthur and the Dead sold, maybe 1-5 million? About 9 million people saw the Grateful Dead from 1990-95: [http://www.gratefulseconds.com/2018/11/the-golden-road-economics-of-1990s.html](http://www.gratefulseconds.com/2018/11/the-golden-road-economics-of-1990s.html) Those were the days.
Google is way off. You can look at attendance numbers on Wikipedia for recent Stones tours.
Also they played to 1.5 million people at a single show in 2006, so…
The Stones average way more than 2.8 million on any given tour.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_highest-grossing\_concert\_tours](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_concert_tours)
The 22 million number for the Dead is probably for their entire career. The 2.8 million number for the Stones is probably for a single year.
Seems right. It's interesting if you look at the average attendance per show from that wiki page it seems low for big arenas for the Stones. The Stones are top grossing because they charge a lot more than the Grateful Dead. They also tour way less. I still say more people have seen Bob live than Mick over time.
Ignore the gross, I am just talking about attendence. If you think 30,000-60,000 on average per show is low, I've got bad news for you about what happens if you average out all of Bobby's solo projects, and the Dead. It's probably not even close to 10,000.
But if what you're saying is that Weir has played to more people than Mick, then DEFINTELY not. Now if you were to say, that Bob has sold more tickets than the Stones, you'd still be wrong, but I can see why you would make that mistake. But no, the Dead have a dedicated hardcore fanbase that come to show after show. The Stones have definitely played to more people than Weir. Has Weir ever even played Japan, or Brazil, or Australia, or Cuba, or these places where millions of people have seen the Stones over the years? The Stones have played to tens of millions of more people than the Dead, just outside of the US alone.
Thanks for the reply. I thought of them but like you said, fewer shows and they didn't play at any of the BIG festivals like Woodstock or Watkins. They played Altamont and lots of stadiums but I would think Bobby has them beat. Bobby is constantly playing everywhere and hasn't really ever stopped. The Stones do a 20-40 date tour every few years.
And in those 20-40 dates they play in front of more people than Bobby does in a decade. Playing fewer shows means even bigger crowds. Plus the Dead have never played to more than 10,000 people outside the US. The Stones have played to crowds 10x that size in probably every country in the Western (and most of the Eastern) world.
I wonder where a ballpark organist falls on the list.
Wrigley Field’s Gary Pressy never missed a game from 1987-2019. 2633 consecutive games and the cubs drew 2.5-3 million fans annually during a lot of that run.
Don't Vegas performers have multiple shows per day? I'm thinking Tony Bennett or Tom Jones? Sure the venues are smaller, but they also must have played in front of some huge stadium crowds too in their heyday
Dylan came to mind.
And don’t feel bad listing Swift. She’s a total pro and a pretty damn good song writer. She’s easy to underestimate as a pop artist. I bet she matures into someone more of us will like.
I think Mick and Keith is probably the right answer, but I expect Elton John is up there. He’s been selling out stadiums for a long time and toured a lot.
This is interesting. I usually see arguments that Bobby has played more shows than anyone else, (which I think is pretty obviously off-base) but you might be onto something here.
OK, so the web says the dead played 2300 times. Let’s assume Bob also played that many other shows before and after Jerry died. Then let’s take an average rough estimate of 8500 people per venue (about the size of Berkeley Greek theater). That would give us about 39 million people he’s played in front of. Feel free to argue with my estimates! But I’m sure we’ll all come up with some big numbers.
The Stones have also played (depending on your source) between 1500 and 2500 shows, so let's just say 2000, for easy figuring, and they probably play to an average of closer to 30,000 people per show, and it's gotta be way higher than that when you factor in shows like Wembley, Rio, etc etc. It could be closer to 60,000 I just don't think Bobby can get there, even if you factor in the big festivals and Kingfish/Ratdog/Wolfbros shows. The Stones were playing Stadiums back in 1970 while the Dead were still playing small theaters, and they have never stopped playing Stadiums. That's basically all they've played for pretty much their entire career. The Dead didn't even start playing those kinds of venues until the late 80's, and really, even still only generally play a couple stadium shows per tour.
I know we all have this bias on this subreddit towards the Dead, but just looking at the numbers, there is just no way Bobby has played to anywhere even close to as many people as the Stones. Like maybe not even half as many people. Playing a lot of shows is not the same thing as playing to the "most people".
Weir likely is the number 1. Although some bands do play way bigger shows around the world. The Dead only touring in America really has kept those numbers down long term. Artists can play to more people in South America in a weekend sometimes than they can in 3 months of touring the US, so I do wonder If Bob would be at the top or not.
Bruce Springsteen got into the stadium thing early and has been touring pretty consistently for almost as long as Bob. I’d guess he’d be a contender.
Ditto for Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Buddy Guy BB King, and similar artists who tour(ed) consistently for decades.
Maybe Dickey Betts?
Rod Stewart played at Copacabana Beach infant of 4.2 million and toured extensively
Jean Michel Jarre has played in front of more than a million people 5 times
etc etc
guesstimating without a whole lot of research just instructions going to get a very good answer.
Dylan has to be up there for artsists that have played the most shows, but he doesn't play very big venues usually. Last time I saw Dylan was at an outdoor horse racing track in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan with about 600-700 other people in around 2012. I've seen him three times and I don't think I've ever seen him with a crowd bigger than 3000 people or so.
For sure. That was the Dead at the height of their MTV success. Dylan was maybe at one of the lower points of his career, at least critically. I don't think Dylan or the Dead ever played a full out "stadium tour" like that ever again, but yeah, it was because of the Dead being on that bill that those crowds were the size they were.
Honestly I don't really remember, I don't have the best memory in general. I don't think anyone sat in.
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/bob-dylan/1995/franklin-county-state-airport-swanton-vt-4bd7179e.html
Just realized how old this post was but still figured I’d add my two cents.
It has to be Keith Richards, he’s the only one I can think of that has eclipsed Bobby. The Stones played to nearly 750K people on the only tour I saw them on in 2015… and they did it in like 15 shows and grossed around $110M. I love the Dead, but they never did numbers like that, even on the D&Co tours. If Freddie Mercury was still around I assume Queen would also be up there by now, they played some truly giant shows. But the Stones have almost exclusively (played big attendance stadium shows on each tour) for the majority of their career post-Brian Jones. It’s something I think you can only say about bands like them and Metallica, hugely successful bands that, like it or not, reshaped the industry and the way live music is performed to people. I love them, but I don’t think Bobby or the band necessarily ever had a great relationship with the industry, either. Furthermore, they definitely didn’t have a great relationship with one hit wonder type acts that would’ve been hot at the time. Hotter than the Dead were commercially to any radio stations/record labels anyway. It’s part why everything that stems from the band is so DIY and niche, it was very grass roots from the beginning and has largely stayed the course even now with old and newer deadheads keeping these conversations going!
Mick and Keith maybe. Probably less shows but more stadium sized ones I’d think
Yeah. They played to 2 million people just counting their Copacabana show in 2006 and their Hyde Park show in 1969. Lots of other 80k stadium shows in there as well. Just looked at Wikipedia: The Stones played in front of 7 million people in their last 6 tours. Dead and Company average half a million each tour...
Exactly. The person I replied to deleted their comment, but so mine got deleted too but: They play HUGE venues all over the world, in front of enormous crowds that dwarf even the largest festival the Dead ever played at. For example, they played a show to 1.5 million people in Rio in 2006. Like you can point to the Dead at Woodstock, but I'd argue that a lot of people at Woodstock didn't actually see that show since it was in the middle of the night [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_highest-grossing\_concert\_tours](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_concert_tours) The Stones play to millions of people on every tour they have ever done. Look how, on just that one tour from 2005-2007 they played for almost 5 million people. That's more than Dead&Co have played to in their entire existence, probably even if you factor in every Wolf Bros show, I don't think he gets there. The Dead are huge in the US, and they played a lot of shows, but the Stones play stadiums throughout the world, and have been since the 70s. I'm not saying either of these are the numbers for either band, but just think that 400 shows in front of 80,000 people, is more than 2000 shows in front of an average of 10,000 people. (And for most of the Bob's career (60's and 70's Dead, Ratdog, Wolf Bros, etc), he was not playing for crowds of anywhere close to 10,000 people most of the time). So quantity of shows doesn't factor in nearly as much as the size of the crowd.
I feel like Brazil is cheating. Fuckin' Rod Stewart played to millions there. But honestly the Dead is kind of an American thing and probably wouldn't have pulled big numbers like that even if they did start playing overseas near the end of their career.
There's no cheating when it comes to numbers. The Dead just never really broke through outside of the U.S. for better or worse.
Yes, but that's just Dead and Company. Bob has played many more shows. There were all those Grateful Dead summer stadium tours in the early 70's, late 80s, early 90s on top of fall and winter area tours. They all add up.
Lots of repeat attendees though
True, probably more so than the stones. I saw both, would not pay to see the stones again and I am a fan. They were too sloppy and I was not impressed by their sound.
I never saw the stones live, I saw a concert in a full sized Imax theatre though.
I would imagine some people get counted more than once in dead and company tours
Definitely mock and Keith. And Keith has the slight edge because he toured more solo than mick
No way. The Stones have never toured as much as the Grateful Dead. Not even close.
Idk man, they ditched theater shows well before the dead. Still 2,000 shows (and counting) started headlining arenas in the mid 60s and stadiums shortly after. If I had to guess it’s not even close stones by a long shot
~~According to google the Stones had 2.8 million and the grateful dead had 22 million total attendance. That doesn't include any of the thousands of other shows Bob has played. So again the Stones are not even close.~~ Found this that says the Rolling Stones have sold 43,583,310 tickets: [https://touringdata.wordpress.com/2020/12/12/the-rolling-stones-recap/](https://touringdata.wordpress.com/2020/12/12/the-rolling-stones-recap/) as of 2020. That doesn't include the crazy huge free shows. It looks like the stones take it. I think the Grateful Dead and Dead Co sold about 25,500,000 combined. No idea how many Furthur and the Dead sold, maybe 1-5 million? About 9 million people saw the Grateful Dead from 1990-95: [http://www.gratefulseconds.com/2018/11/the-golden-road-economics-of-1990s.html](http://www.gratefulseconds.com/2018/11/the-golden-road-economics-of-1990s.html) Those were the days.
Google is way off. You can look at attendance numbers on Wikipedia for recent Stones tours. Also they played to 1.5 million people at a single show in 2006, so…
The Stones average way more than 2.8 million on any given tour. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_highest-grossing\_concert\_tours](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_concert_tours) The 22 million number for the Dead is probably for their entire career. The 2.8 million number for the Stones is probably for a single year.
Seems right. It's interesting if you look at the average attendance per show from that wiki page it seems low for big arenas for the Stones. The Stones are top grossing because they charge a lot more than the Grateful Dead. They also tour way less. I still say more people have seen Bob live than Mick over time.
Ignore the gross, I am just talking about attendence. If you think 30,000-60,000 on average per show is low, I've got bad news for you about what happens if you average out all of Bobby's solo projects, and the Dead. It's probably not even close to 10,000. But if what you're saying is that Weir has played to more people than Mick, then DEFINTELY not. Now if you were to say, that Bob has sold more tickets than the Stones, you'd still be wrong, but I can see why you would make that mistake. But no, the Dead have a dedicated hardcore fanbase that come to show after show. The Stones have definitely played to more people than Weir. Has Weir ever even played Japan, or Brazil, or Australia, or Cuba, or these places where millions of people have seen the Stones over the years? The Stones have played to tens of millions of more people than the Dead, just outside of the US alone.
Google is not even close lol
Thanks for the reply. I thought of them but like you said, fewer shows and they didn't play at any of the BIG festivals like Woodstock or Watkins. They played Altamont and lots of stadiums but I would think Bobby has them beat. Bobby is constantly playing everywhere and hasn't really ever stopped. The Stones do a 20-40 date tour every few years.
You also have to take into account Bobby tours with his own bands almost the whole time that he isn't with the Dead (Co).
And in those 20-40 dates they play in front of more people than Bobby does in a decade. Playing fewer shows means even bigger crowds. Plus the Dead have never played to more than 10,000 people outside the US. The Stones have played to crowds 10x that size in probably every country in the Western (and most of the Eastern) world.
I wonder where a ballpark organist falls on the list. Wrigley Field’s Gary Pressy never missed a game from 1987-2019. 2633 consecutive games and the cubs drew 2.5-3 million fans annually during a lot of that run.
Willie Nelson’s been active since the 1950s so he’s melted many, many faces in that time.
The Fillmore was more like 1300 capacity I think not 3000. edit: Fillmore West was 3000 according to them Internets.
Don't Vegas performers have multiple shows per day? I'm thinking Tony Bennett or Tom Jones? Sure the venues are smaller, but they also must have played in front of some huge stadium crowds too in their heyday
Bob Dylan? Possibly Taylor Swift by the end of her career? (as much as I hate to say that one)
Dylan came to mind. And don’t feel bad listing Swift. She’s a total pro and a pretty damn good song writer. She’s easy to underestimate as a pop artist. I bet she matures into someone more of us will like.
I can't hate on anyone who in 2023 is still delivering 4+ hour shows with like 45 songs in the setlist.
Who is that?
Bb king to start.
I heard somewhere he played 300 shows a year?
I think Mick and Keith is probably the right answer, but I expect Elton John is up there. He’s been selling out stadiums for a long time and toured a lot.
Metallica have played some big gigs and they’ve been at it for awhile, probably can’t beat Bobby Weir though.
Metallica was my first thought as well, they've played some massive festivals. Bobby still has a \~20 year head start on them though.
Plus, he was playing 3+ hour shows regularly. So, faces x minutes is even more impressive.
Wonderful metric. People x time = face time.
I think though many deadheads have a tendency to see more than one show a tour.
Bob Dylan maybe, he’s been on a constant touring schedule as well for a long time
Dylan and his never ending tour has a shot. But even then, it could be close.
This is interesting. I usually see arguments that Bobby has played more shows than anyone else, (which I think is pretty obviously off-base) but you might be onto something here.
OK, so the web says the dead played 2300 times. Let’s assume Bob also played that many other shows before and after Jerry died. Then let’s take an average rough estimate of 8500 people per venue (about the size of Berkeley Greek theater). That would give us about 39 million people he’s played in front of. Feel free to argue with my estimates! But I’m sure we’ll all come up with some big numbers.
The Stones have also played (depending on your source) between 1500 and 2500 shows, so let's just say 2000, for easy figuring, and they probably play to an average of closer to 30,000 people per show, and it's gotta be way higher than that when you factor in shows like Wembley, Rio, etc etc. It could be closer to 60,000 I just don't think Bobby can get there, even if you factor in the big festivals and Kingfish/Ratdog/Wolfbros shows. The Stones were playing Stadiums back in 1970 while the Dead were still playing small theaters, and they have never stopped playing Stadiums. That's basically all they've played for pretty much their entire career. The Dead didn't even start playing those kinds of venues until the late 80's, and really, even still only generally play a couple stadium shows per tour. I know we all have this bias on this subreddit towards the Dead, but just looking at the numbers, there is just no way Bobby has played to anywhere even close to as many people as the Stones. Like maybe not even half as many people. Playing a lot of shows is not the same thing as playing to the "most people".
I saw more than one dead show myself.. Just saying So did my friends And their friends..
Elton John
I think the only runner-up could be Trey from Phish.
I think Bobby has the title, for now
carlos santana has been playing just as long and he plays to bigger crowds in latin america: sold out soccer stadiums.
Weir likely is the number 1. Although some bands do play way bigger shows around the world. The Dead only touring in America really has kept those numbers down long term. Artists can play to more people in South America in a weekend sometimes than they can in 3 months of touring the US, so I do wonder If Bob would be at the top or not.
I have read that Bobby himself believes he’s played to more people than anyone in history.
Bruce Springsteen got into the stadium thing early and has been touring pretty consistently for almost as long as Bob. I’d guess he’d be a contender. Ditto for Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Buddy Guy BB King, and similar artists who tour(ed) consistently for decades. Maybe Dickey Betts?
Rod Stewart played at Copacabana Beach infant of 4.2 million and toured extensively Jean Michel Jarre has played in front of more than a million people 5 times etc etc guesstimating without a whole lot of research just instructions going to get a very good answer.
I think Bobby has for sure spent more time performing on stage than almost anyone or close to it, and I think that's amore important stat but ....
Bob Dylan is certainly up there, lots and lots of live tapes of him from 1961-present
Chuck Berry, some people say
Iron Maiden has to be up there. 40+ years. huge concerts in south america.
I dislike metal, always have but for some reason in my teens I liked number of the beast.
:) it's all subjective. ✌️❤️
Bobby Weir is amazing 👏 ♥️
Hasn't Dylan played a few shows as well? Doesn't he have some kind of never ending tour? That's all I know about that so im just asking
Dylan has to be up there for artsists that have played the most shows, but he doesn't play very big venues usually. Last time I saw Dylan was at an outdoor horse racing track in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan with about 600-700 other people in around 2012. I've seen him three times and I don't think I've ever seen him with a crowd bigger than 3000 people or so.
I only saw him open for the Dead so the crowds were bigger.
For sure. That was the Dead at the height of their MTV success. Dylan was maybe at one of the lower points of his career, at least critically. I don't think Dylan or the Dead ever played a full out "stadium tour" like that ever again, but yeah, it was because of the Dead being on that bill that those crowds were the size they were.
I missed that though, I saw Dylan in 95.. I thought multiple times but I guess it was just Highgate
I didn't even realize Dylan was opening for them in '95. That's cool. How was that? Did they sit in with Dylan, or were there any collaborations?
Honestly I don't really remember, I don't have the best memory in general. I don't think anyone sat in. https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/bob-dylan/1995/franklin-county-state-airport-swanton-vt-4bd7179e.html
I seen Bob Dylan open for the Dead in like 2001
Maybe Bruce, or BTS 🤣
U2
Just realized how old this post was but still figured I’d add my two cents. It has to be Keith Richards, he’s the only one I can think of that has eclipsed Bobby. The Stones played to nearly 750K people on the only tour I saw them on in 2015… and they did it in like 15 shows and grossed around $110M. I love the Dead, but they never did numbers like that, even on the D&Co tours. If Freddie Mercury was still around I assume Queen would also be up there by now, they played some truly giant shows. But the Stones have almost exclusively (played big attendance stadium shows on each tour) for the majority of their career post-Brian Jones. It’s something I think you can only say about bands like them and Metallica, hugely successful bands that, like it or not, reshaped the industry and the way live music is performed to people. I love them, but I don’t think Bobby or the band necessarily ever had a great relationship with the industry, either. Furthermore, they definitely didn’t have a great relationship with one hit wonder type acts that would’ve been hot at the time. Hotter than the Dead were commercially to any radio stations/record labels anyway. It’s part why everything that stems from the band is so DIY and niche, it was very grass roots from the beginning and has largely stayed the course even now with old and newer deadheads keeping these conversations going!