The 10 biggest concerts in history

Last Saturday, Lady Gaga performed in Brazil in front of the monster figure of 2.5 million people, gathered on the beach of Copacabana in Rio De Janeiro—a location that, as we will see later, has always been historically fertile for Guinness World Record-breaking concerts. The use of the word monster is not accidental: Lady Gaga's concert, although free, is fully part of the Mayhem tour, of which we got a first taste at Coachella, with horror-inspired sets and costumes, including skeletons, zombies, and other types of monsters. Lady Gaga's concert (during which a possible attack was also thwarted) broke the previous record set by Madonna of 1.6 million spectators, thus becoming—as declared by the singer herself—the concert by a female artist with the highest number of spectators in history. Even in the context of the largest concerts ever, Lady Gaga still managed to rank very high, reaching 4th place tied with another true specialist of oceanic concerts, the French musician Jean-Michel Jarre, the only artist to appear twice in the top 10.

Before looking at the complete list of the ten largest concerts ever, it is necessary to make some clarifications. The first is that, when talking about concerts with the largest number of spectators, one must distinguish between events with paying audiences and those that are free. For obvious reasons, there cannot be a true comparison between the two types: free concerts are capable of gathering much larger crowds. Just to give an idea of the numbers, free concerts reach millions of spectators, while paid concerts are in the hundreds of thousands. To date, it is said that the concert with the largest number of paying spectators was Vasco Rossi at Modena Park in 2017—225,173 tickets sold—but, as we will see, this is not exactly the case. The second is that, in the case of free concerts, it is clear that the number of spectators cannot be certified; it is more of an approximate estimate. Like all estimates, the figure is subject to fluctuations and therefore to possible doubts, verifications, and/or clarifications on the final declared result. Finally, although one might be led to think that the artists who gathered the largest crowds are the most well-known in the world, this is often not the case: two pop giants like Michael Jackson and the Beatles, for example, do not make it onto this list. In this case, factors more decisive than fame come into play, such as the size of the venue, the musical culture of the host country, the historical period, but above all, the coincidence of the concert with a particular celebratory event.

So, let's see which have been the 10 largest concerts in history.

1. Rod Stewart, Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro (1994) - 3.5 million spectators

At the top of the list for years is Rod Stewart. His New Year's Eve concert held on Copacabana Beach on December 31, 1994, was attended by at least 3.5 million people, as also "certified" on the Guinness World Records website. Although he is quite famous, both as a former member of the Faces in the '70s and as a solo artist (especially with the album Every Picture Tells a Story), it is very likely that this achievement would not have been possible without the coincidence of two other factors: first, it was the main event of the Brazilian New Year. Every year, New Year's Eve in Copacabana is celebrated with a bang and regularly attracts about two million people. It is therefore very likely that the spectator count also included people who were actually there just to watch the fireworks and wish each other a happy new year. Secondly, 1994 was a special year of celebrations for Brazil, as that very year they won the World Cup, a deeply significant event for the entire nation. It is therefore possible that there were even more people than usual that year with a great desire to take to the streets—or rather, the beach—to celebrate.

2. Jean-Michel Jarre, Moscow State University, Moscow (1997) - Around 3.5 million spectators

In second place in this particular ranking, we have the French composer and pioneer of electronic music Jean-Michel Jarre. The estimate is about 3.5 million spectators, and according to some sites, he might even deserve the first place. Regardless, taking as true what is declared by the Guinness website, it is still worth mentioning that even in this case, the concert in question received a huge push from a simultaneous celebration. The massive show organized by the French musician took place in Moscow on September 6, 1997 at the explicit invitation of the Russian authorities to celebrate the 850th anniversary of the capital. Jean-Michel Jarre performed on a large stage at the entrance of the Moscow State University, while video fragments of various significant moments in the city's history were projected onto the facade. The event lasted over three hours and was called Oxygen in Moscow, not only as a tribute to Jarre's most important album, released in 1976, but also to symbolically give a breath of fresh air to Moscow citizens—a symbolic idea of the city's rebirth after the Soviet era. The concert also ranks first in the Guinness World Records as the one with the most paying spectators, because, in reality, the first 500,000 spectators present in front of the university building were those who managed to grab official tickets for the event, while the remaining 3 million attended for free in the surrounding areas.

3. Jorge Ben Jor, Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro (1993) - 3 million spectators

In third place, we have another New Year's Eve concert, once again in Brazil, again in Rio de Janeiro, and once more at Copacabana Beach, which, as mentioned earlier, has been the setting for numerous oceanic concerts. This time, we are talking about New Year's Eve 1993, which saw an attendance of about 3 million people for the concert of Jorge Ben Jor, a true living monument of Brazilian music. Even if you have never heard of him, we bet you know his most famous song Mas, Que Nada, perhaps the first truly great Brazilian music hit to cross national borders.

4 and 5. Jean-Michel Jarre La Défense, Paris (1990) and Lady Gaga Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro (2025) - About 2.5 million spectators

As mentioned earlier, in the fourth/fifth place, we find the Brazilian concert of Lady Gaga mentioned at the beginning, and again Jean-Michel Jarre, this time with his famous concert held in Paris on July 14, 1990, for the anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille. A celebration of nationalism that brought in about 2.5 million spectators. Although the numbers are likely tied, we chose to list the two artists in the 4th and 5th places because, according to some recent estimates, the number of spectators at Lady Gaga's concert seems slightly lower than what the singer claimed: some sources mention 2.1 million people. Nonetheless, it remains an impressive figure, especially since it was achieved solely by her own efforts, without any historical celebrations.

6. Antonello Venditti Circo Massimo, Rome (2001) - 1.8 million spectators

It wasn’t due to a historical event in the strictest and most common sense of the term, but it was still a very important event for the city of Rome that brought Antonello Venditti to this ranking with 1.8 million spectators—a record figure for an Italian artist—for his concert at Circo Massimo on June 24, 2001. The occasion? The championship victory of A.S. Roma. Those familiar with the capital know how significant this event was for its citizens, also as a sign of vindication against the historically dominant football teams from northern Italy. And who better than the author of Roma Capoccia?

7. Monsters of Rock, Tushino Airfield, Moscow (1991) - 1.6 million spectators

Once again Moscow, and once again a historical event, are the combination that led the improbable Russian stop of the Monsters of Rock festival to enter this ranking. For those unfamiliar, Monsters of Rock was a traveling festival characterized by a lineup entirely made up of hard rock and heavy metal bands. The Moscow stop included four giants of the genre—AC/DC, Metallica, Pantera, and Black Crowes—plus a Russian band unknown to us, E.S.T., which stands for Electro Shock Therapy. What made the difference compared to all other European dates was not Russian heavy metal, but the particular and delicate sociopolitical context of the time. The concert took place on September 28, 1991: censorship from Russian institutions against Western culture was coming to an end, Gorbachev's policies of openness had taken effect, and just a little over two months later, the dissolution of the Soviet Union would take place. For this reason, this concert, capable of attracting a stunning 1.6 million spectators against all plausible expectations, was elected as a symbol of the newfound freedom of Russian youth. It wasn’t the first major rock festival in the Soviet Union—there was already the famous Moscow Music Peace Festival in 1989—but this was the most attended concert and certainly the loudest. For those interested, there is a documentary available titled For Those About to Rock: Monsters in Moscow.

8. Madonna, Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro (2024) - 1.6 million spectators

Of course, the mother of all modern pop stars, Madonna, could not be missing from this ranking. At this point, the differences between the various estimates of spectators become so thin that they almost lose their meaning; therefore, we will simply list these final positions based on the most commonly reported order online, without there being any significant distance between them. For Madonna's concert, held on May 4, 2024, during her Celebration Tour, the figure of 1.6 million spectators is mentioned. A record for a female artist, only recently broken by her successor, Lady Gaga. Where? Once again, the same beach, the same sea—Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.

9. The Rolling Stones, Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro (2006) - 1.5 million spectators

Also held at Copacabana Beach, just under ten years ago, was the largest concert ever by a single rock band. With the Beatles no longer around, it could only be the Rolling Stones. Their concert, immortalized in the film The Rolling Stones — A Bigger Bang: Live On Copacabana Beach, made history with an attendance of 1.5 million people.

10. Live 8 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (2005) - 1.5 million spectators

Rounding out the list is the Live 8 concert in Philadelphia on July 2, 2005 (not to be confused with Live Aid from 1985, of which this was a sort of amplified anniversary 20 years later). Live 8 was a kind of revival of that historic charity concert organized by Bob Geldof. This time, instead of concentrating it on a single date at Wembley, it was expanded to eleven different cities across the globe, belonging to the G8 nations. The declared goal of the concerts was to raise awareness about poverty in developing countries ahead of the G8 summit that would take place in Gleneagles a few days later. Of all the concerts, the one in Philadelphia—with headliners like Black Eyed Peas, Alicia Keys, Bon Jovi, Linkin Park, and Stevie Wonder—was the most attended, earning its place in this ranking with 1.5 million attendees.