The study showed that a big population does not always correspond with the most shows.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Some big names have brought their tours to Austin's Moody Center since it opened in 2022.
With a brand-new venue, is Austin getting as many tour stops as other large cities?
A study from Austin-based travel company Upgraded Points calculated which big cities got the most concerts for popular tours in 2023 and 2024 compared to their populations. At the top of the list are cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Austin, which has the 11th largest population, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data, had 27 shows in the study's timeframe. Austin was tied in 11th place for most shows with Minneapolis and San Francisco.
The study showed that a big population does not always correspond with the number of shows. Cities with smaller populations like Miami (35 shows), Boston (37 shows) and Atlanta (39 shows) had more tour stops than Austin.
However, the data shows Austin (974,447 population) hosted more shows when compared to similar-sized cities. Jacksonville, Florida, (971,319) saw just one show in this period. San Jose, California, (971,233) got nine shows. Columbus, Ohio, (907,971) had 13 shows.
These are the largest cities in the US and how many tour stops they saw in 2023-24:
When these cities' metropolitan statistical areas are compared, the number of tour stops is comparable. However, Austin—with about 2.4 million people in the metro area—has more than double the number of shows than San Antonio and San Diego, which have larger metro populations.
These cities saw the most shows in the 2023-24 tour season:
When compared to other Texas cities, Austin got about the same number of tour stops as Houston (28 shows), more than San Antonio (10 shows) and fewer than Dallas (37 shows).
The study looked at the 30 most popular tours in 2023 and 2024 including names like Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Bad Bunny, Beyonce, Drake Blink 182, Nicki Minaj, Blake Shelton, Zach Bryan and others.
The full study from Upgraded Points is available online.
