As U.S. Pop Stars Scale Back Tours Amid High Inflation, BTS Continues Sold-Out Streak

Forbes Reports: "Empty Seats" Spreading in U.S. Concert Market
High Inflation and Rising Oil Prices Force Tour Cancellations
BTS Sells Out All North American and European Shows

As the U.S. live performance market faces a direct blow from high inflation, leading to a wave of concert tour reductions and cancellations, BTS stands out as an exception, consistently selling out shows across North America and Europe.

BTS. Big Hit Music

On June 19, Yonhap News reported that the business magazine Forbes shed light on this phenomenon in an article last month titled "Blue Dot Fever Hits Musicians," which discussed the downturn in the U.S. live performance market. The term "blue dot" is a new expression referring to unsold seats, which are marked as blue dots on U.S. ticketing sites. Forbes explained that the phrase has come to symbolize the slump in the U.S. concert market, as even performances that would have once sold out are now left with empty seats.

According to Forbes, even famous pop stars have not been immune to poor ticket sales. The well-known pop group Pussycat Dolls significantly scaled back their arena and stadium tours in the United States, while Post Malone and Jelly Roll reduced one-third of their joint stadium tour schedule. Meghan Trainor canceled her entire U.S. arena tour.

The main reason cited for the sluggish performance market was high inflation in the United States. Forbes reported that the average concert ticket price in the U.S. this year reached $144 (about 222,000 won), a sharp increase from $82 in 2020 and $115 last year. In addition, rising oil prices following the war in Iran have driven up touring costs, and the hosting of the North and Central America World Cup has further dealt a heavy blow to the live performance industry.

In contrast, BTS sold out all of their North American and European shows for their 'ARIRANG' world tour, which began in April. Due to overwhelming demand, the number of shows expanded from the originally planned 79 to a total of 88, with additional performances added in Tampa, Stamford, and Las Vegas in the U.S.; Lima in Peru; Santiago in Chile; Buenos Aires in Argentina; Melbourne in Australia; Jakarta in Indonesia; and Bulacan in the Philippines.

Billboard, the American music magazine, reported that BTS topped the monthly "Top Tour" chart by earning $76.2 million (about 117.2 billion won) in revenue and selling 417,000 tickets from just eight concerts held in Goyang, South Korea; Tokyo, Japan; and Tampa, U.S. in April. Notably, the three concerts held in Tampa set the record for the highest revenue and the largest audience for a single venue worldwide in April.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.