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Nate Bargatze led the calendar-year 2024 list of highest-grossing comedy tours, with a reported $82.2 million gross. Matt Rife ranked second at $57.5 million. Those figures come from a calendar-year summary; Billboard Boxscore’s separate year-end ranking counted eligible worldwide shows from October 1, 2023, through September 30, 2024, so the two reporting windows should not be treated as interchangeable.
Top-grossing comedy tours in calendar year 2024
The following ranking and attendance figures are from a January 20, 2025 calendar-year summary attributed to Billboard Boxscore charts. Amounts are reported grosses, not estimates of performers’ personal income or profit.
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| Rank | Comedian | Reported gross | Tickets sold | Shows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nate Bargatze | $82.2 million | About 1.1 million | 148 |
| 2 | Matt Rife | $57.5 million | About 733,000 | 256 |
| 3 | Gabriel Iglesias | $42.8 million | 603,000 | 124 |
| 4 | Katt Williams | $37.5 million | 399,000 | 60 |
| 5 | Sebastian Maniscalco | $36.5 million | 293,000 | 53 |
| 6 | Bert Kreischer | $29.7 million | 388,000 | 64 |
| 7 | Trevor Noah | $29.7 million | 392,000 | 94 |
| 8 | Jerry Seinfeld | $27.8 million | 199,000 | 36 |
| 9 | Adam Sandler | $27 million | 261,000 | 26 |
| 10 | Jo Koy | $26 million | 368,000 | 83 |
Source: Celebrity Net Worth’s January 20, 2025 calendar-year summary. The published figures are rounded.
What the numbers show—and what they do not
Gross and ticket sales
Bargatze led both reported gross and ticket sales, with about 1.1 million tickets sold across 148 shows. Rife ranked second in gross and had the most shows in the ten-act list: 256. His reported ticket total was about 733,000. These are different measures of touring scale; neither show count nor gross alone describes attendance at an individual performance.
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Gross per show is only a rough calculation
Dividing each act’s reported gross by its reported show count gives a rough average gross per show, using the summary’s rounded figures. For Bargatze, that is about $555,000; for Rife, about $225,000. These calculations are not reported ticket prices, take-home pay, or profit. A gross does not account for expenses, taxes, venue arrangements, or how revenue is divided.
Why another 2024 ranking may show different totals
Eric Frankenberg’s December 18, 2024 article reporting Billboard Boxscore figures used a touring-year window, not the calendar year: eligible worldwide shows ran from October 1, 2023, through September 30, 2024. It said the top ten comedy acts grossed a combined $396.7 million, up 52% year over year, and performed 944 shows in that tracking period. The article characterized the leading act’s roughly $80 million as a Boxscore record for the largest one-year gross by a comedy performer. Those are figures and descriptions for Billboard’s stated window, not a substitute for the separate calendar-year table above. Read Frankenberg’s Billboard Boxscore year-end comedy chart report.
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When comparing lists, check the measurement period and chart publisher first. A ranking covering October through September can include a different set of shows from one covering January through December, even when both are described as “2024.”
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How the comedy figures fit the wider touring market
Pollstar’s December 13, 2024 year-end report provides separate market context, not a comedy-only ranking. It reported $9.5 billion gross for its 2024 Top 100 Worldwide Tours and an average ticket price of $135.92 for that group. Those Pollstar figures cover its own chart and should not be added to, or directly compared as if they were part of, Billboard Boxscore’s comedy totals. See Pollstar’s 2024 Top 100 Worldwide Tours report.
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