Elton John‘s recently relaunched Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour has put him on top of a new weekly chart: Pollstar‘s Artist Power Index.
The ranking combines concert ticket sales data with streaming, radio airplay and social media of the top 1,000 artists to determine which ones are truly the most popular. The concert ticket sales data is more heavily weighted, since it usually generates the most revenue.
Elton tops the first chart, because not only is his tour doing well on the road, but he also is ranked fairly high when it comes to airplay and streaming. The rest of the top 10 includes Elton’s former tour mate Billy Joel, plus Bryan Adams, country stars Luke Bryan, Kane Brown and Blake Shelton, and rappers DaBaby and Jack Harlow.
As for why super-popular, chart-topping pop stars like Justin Bieber, The Weekend, Ed Sheeran, Adele, Dua Lipa and Taylor Swift aren’t in the top 10 — or even the top 20 — it’s because their tours either haven’t started yet or they don’t have any live shows scheduled. Pollstar takes into account headline performances over the last 30 days, and an average of ticket sales over the past 36 months.
Pollstar says the new ranking truly reflects “fan passion, audience consumption, and consumer engagement.”
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