The Weeknd: By the Numbers

By David Farrell

The Weeknd’ is heading out on a massive tour next year and his box-office numbers are going to be beyond astronomical.  

The Scarborough, ON-born son of immigrant Ethiopians found his muse in a darkly hypnotic blend of hip-hop, funk and post-punk that caught fire with the release of a trilogy of mixtapes released in 2011. From that point on, he built a brand that has earned him a personal wealth estimated at US$100M, and an expanding empire that’s become a magnet for brands and fans.

On YouTube, the Weeknd's videos were watched 4.8B times around the world in 2020.

Blinding Lights, his Nov. 2019 single, is now reported to have become the first song by a Canadian artist to pass two billion plays on Spotify.

The Weeknd’s cumulative global success is uncounted, so far, but his US imprint accounts for 12-billion audio streams and 10.4-million sales.

At home, MRC Data has cumulatively logged 1.84 billion streams in Canada for Starboy's expanding catalogue of often mournful gems.

And this is all past tense. On Feb. 3, Live Nation announced details for his 2022 tour and seven days later came back with the fact almost 1-million tickets had been pre-sold.

His already over-sized imprint becomes bigger than ginormous with the launch of his 2022 After Hours tour that encompasses 104-concerts in 19 countries. The extravaganza opens with back-to-back shows at Vancouver’s 18,00+ capacity Rogers Arena, Jan 14 and 15.

Only concert promoter Live Nation and the tighter than tight-knit team behind him know just how rich this tour is in terms of dollars and seats, but we did some basic math to figure out what the numbers are for the nine Canadian shows included in his After Hours tour, and they are beyond impressive.

In total, his Canadian tour stands to sell in the vicinity of 171K+ tickets scaled between $60 and $836 for a VIP package. Ballparking the average ticket price at $150.00, the gross comes in north of $25M–and that's before merchandise sales that one insider confidently projects will earn between four and five million dollars over the nine Canadian shows.

Starboy's 2022 Canadian concert dates:

Jan 14 & 15, Vancouver’s Rogers Arena – capacity 18K+

Jan. 17, Edmonton’s Rogers Place - capacity 18K+

Jan. 19, Winnipeg Bell MTS Place – capacity 16K+

Feb. 1 & 2 Toronto Scotiabank Arena – capacity 20K+

Feb 3, Montreal Bell Centre – capacity 21K+

April 11 & 14, Toronto Scotiabank Arena – capacity 20K+

And here’s The Weeknd’s US seven-day take on the revenue chart for the week ending Feb. 11, aggregated by Buzz Angle and published by Hits Daily Double:

#3: Blinding Lights - US$119,890

#4: Save Your Tears – $107,044

#37: The Hills - $41,783

#50: Starboy - $34,981

US Week Total: US$303,788