Guns N' Roses Wrap 'Not in This Lifetime… Tour': $584 Million; 5.4 Million Tickets

After more than three years and 158 concerts, Guns N' Roses' Not in This Lifetime… Tour has come to a close. And, the final numbers are in: $584.2 million grossed from 5,371,891 tickets sold across six continents' worth of shows. The tour, which began in 2016, concludes as the No. 3 highest-grossing tour in the history of Billboard Boxscore. GNR is represented by UTA's Ken Fermaglich and ITB's Rod MacSween. The tour was promoted by Live Nation. Guns N' Roses are managed by Fernando Lebeis and Team Brazil Management.

The tour reunited Guns N’ Roses members Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan, who -- before reconvening in 2016, hadn't played a show together since 1993.

After warming up at the 500-capacity The Troubadour in West Hollywood, Calif. on April 1, 2016, a newly reunited Guns N’ Roses gave an unofficial kick-off to the Not in This Lifetime… Tour with two shows at the then-newly opened T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The April 8-9, 2016 concerts sold out at 28,889 tickets and a blistering $7.3 million gross according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. Three-and-a-half years and six continents later, GNR returned to Vegas to wrap their sprawling global trek with two final shows at The Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace on Nov. 2-3. 

From 2016 to 2019, GNR maintained a busy schedule, maximizing their global potential with trips around the world. The tour was rooted in North America, with 87 of 158 shows (55%) taking place in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. But there were also multiple visits to Europe (31 shows), Asia (16) and South America (15), plus eight dates in Australia and one in Johannesburg, South Africa.

With more time in North America, the band was able to play a more even mix of stadiums and arenas, as opposed to quicker runs of only stadiums internationally. Their home-continent touring amounted to $258.5 million and 2.3 million tickets sold, still far ahead of Europe’s $166.1 million.

The tour’s top performing engagements are representative of the band’s global approach. They broke $10 million on five separate engagements throughout the run (London; East Rutherford, N.J.; Tallinn, Estonia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Sao Paulo, Brazil). Similarly, they eclipsed 100,000 tickets on four occasions (London; Mexico City; Buenos Aires; East Rutherford). The London Stadium shows on June 16-17, 2017 were the highlights of the tour on both accounts, with a $17.7 million gross and a paid attendance tally of 140,877.

The Not in This Lifetime… Tour marked the first time that Axl Rose, Slash, and Duff McKagan played together since the 1993 Use Your Illusion Tour and their reunion proved the power of the band’s classic lineup.  On a per-show basis, the band leveled up from an average gross of $617,000 on the 2012-14 Appetite for Democracy Tour to $3.7 million each night on the Not in This Lifetime… Tour.

Fans may have thought a reunion (much less a reunion that has lasted three years so far) was impossible but at the close of the decade, here we are: Guns N’ Roses mounted the third most successful tour of all time, closing with a string of sold-out shows in the trek’s fourth and final year.