Since Billboard launched the monthly Boxscore charts in 2019, all types of acts have been No. 1 on the Top Tours chart. Men (Elton John was first in February 2019), women (P!nk followed the next month) and mixed-gender groups (RBD in November 2023); stars of pop, rock, R&B, country, Latin, rap, K-pop, and more. Solo artists and collectives – vocal groups like BTS and Spice Girls, bands like The Rolling Stones and Coldplay, and institutional touring ensembles like Trans-Siberian Orchestra. But in its 75th edition, ranking the biggest touring acts of September 2026, for the first time, co-headliners top the chart.
According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Usher and Chris Brown’s The R&B Tour grossed $77.4 million and sold 423,000 tickets across 10 shows in September, making it the highest-grossing and best-selling tour of the month. They are the first pair of artists to share the No. 1 spot on the chart.
Usher and Brown came close earlier this summer, landing at No. 3 in July and August, blocked by BTS and The Weeknd in both months. And in the last seven years, other co-headline duos have come even closer. Def Leppard and Motley Crue’s double-bill was No. 2 in Aug. 2022, held back by Bad Bunny. Red Hot Chili Peppers and Post Malone were runners-up in Jan. and Feb. 2023, stopped short by Elton John and Ed Sheeran, respectively. And last year, Kendrick Lamar and SZA scored silver in April and May 2025, bested by Coldplay and then by Beyoncé.
September marks Usher’s first month at No. 1, having previously climbed as high as No. 3 as a soloist in Sept. and Oct. 2024. Brown returns to the top exactly one year after last reigning. He scored a record-tying trifecta with three straight months from July-Sept. 2025. Only Bad Bunny and Beyoncé have also been No. 1 for as many consecutive months.
Usher and Brown’s monthly gross and attendance decline from their July and August takes, despite peaking in monthly rank. In July, The R&B Tour earned $98.4 million and sold 538,000 tickets and in August, it brought in $91.8 million and sold 465,000. At $77.4 million and 423,000 for September, they are the first No. 1 since April to gross less than $100 million as the summer stadium season winds down in North America.
The R&B Tour began the month at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. on Sept. 1 and ended in Glendale, Ariz.’s State Farm Stadium on the 29th. In between, they hit Las Vegas, Arlington, Texas (Dallas-area) and Inglewood, Calif. (Los Angeles). On the Top Boxscores chart, the latter three line up at Nos. 6-8 while the month’s single-night bookends fall just below the 30-position chart.
Since kicking off on June 26 in Denver, The R&B Tour grossed $284.7 million and sold more than 1.5 million tickets in its first 36 shows, current through the Oct. 3 date in El Paso, Texas. It’s a stone’s throw away from becoming Brown’s biggest tour ever, approaching the $295.5 million of last year’s Breezy Bowl XX. It’s already gotten there for his stage partner, blowing past the $183.9 million from Usher: Past Present Future (2024-25).
With four still-unreported shows from October and a schedule of 15 more before the end of the year, Usher and Brown will threaten Lamar and SZA’s Grand National Tour to become the highest-grossing co-headline trek ever, potentially smashing the $400 million threshold.
Just underneath the R&B duo, Karol G ties her personal best at No. 2, having last gotten there in April 2025 behind Bad Bunny in first-ever top-2 blockade by Latin acts. With just eight shows in September, the Viajando Por El Mundo Tropitour grossed $73 million and sold 355,000 tickets.
The biggest stop of Karol’s September was in New Jersey, playing the New York-area MetLife Stadium on Sept. 17-18. That double-header brought in $25.3 million and sold 104,000 tickets, which is enough for No. 5 on Top Boxscores. A two-nighter in El Paso, Texas and a single show in Houston also surpassed $10 million.
Karol recently wrapped her tour’s first leg in North America, closing with $220.7 million and 1.1 million tickets in 24 shows between July 24-Oct. 15. It’s already No. 7 on Billboard’s list of the highest-grossing Latin tours in history, not far behind her own Mañana Será Bonito Tour (2023-24) at No. 5. Combine those and add 2022’s $trip Love Tour, the previous year’s Bichota Tour and 2018’s Unstoppable Tour, and she lands among the top five highest-grossing Latin artists ever.
Next, Karol travels to Latin America for six shows in Mexico, two in Costa Rica and three in Colombia before the end of 2026. Another 25 will follow in 2027, almost assuring this to become the biggest tour of her career so far.
At No. 3, one of the biggest touring acts in history makes a triumphant return: Celine Dion is back on Top Tours for the first time in more than six years. After cancelling the remainder of the Courage World Tour in 2023, Dion returned for a residency at Paris’ newly re-named Plenitude Arena (fka La Defense Arena). Playing to more than 33,000 people each night, her eight shows in September grossed $62.9 million and sold 269,000 tickets.
That puts Dion at No. 3 among all touring artists for the month but takes No. 1 on Top Boxscores. She played another eight shows in October, wrapping the first leg of Celine Dion Paris with $125.5 million and 539,000 tickets sold.
Another residency – albeit a residency within the routing of a mammoth world tour – joins Dion on Top Boxscores. Eighteen months deep in the record-breaking Las Mujeres Y No Lloran World Tour, Stadium Shakira was erected in Macondo Park in Madrid for 13 shows. The September portion of that run (six shows) grossed $37.6 million and sold 300,000 tickets with seven more that will be accounted for on next month’s recap.
Two K-pop giants round out the top five on Top Tours. Former chart-topper BTS is No. 4 with just four shows at SoFi Stadium. BigBang follows at No. 5 with $45.2 million with five shows in California, New Jersey, Paris and London.
