For the first half of the 2026 chart year, one woman was there each step of the way, playing one show after another — no sleep, bus, arena, another arena, stadium, plane, next place, etc. — until she came out on top. Lady Gaga leads the midyear Top Tours chart with record-breaking earnings for The Mayhem Ball.

According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Gaga grossed $236.2 million and sold 1.2 million tickets during the midyear period, spanning Oct. 1, 2025, through March 31. That makes it the highest grossing tour of the six-month window, finishing 3% ahead of Bad Bunny. Further, it’s the biggest midyear gross in Boxscore history (dating to 1991), outpacing U2’s Sphere stint ($231.6 million) from two years ago.

U2 got there by brute force, charging an average of $368 per ticket for the venue’s inaugural residency. Gaga had a still high, but earthbound ticket price of $203.98, but won by persistence. She played 52 shows in six months, roughly double Bad Bunny’s count and more than any act in the top 50 other than Trans-Siberian Orchestra, with its dual ensembles touring the country at once, and comedian Nate Bargatze. That show count exceeds all the acts on last year’s midyear ranking too, again with the asterisk of TSO and stand-up comics.

Those 52 shows spanned the entirety of the midyear period, taking Gaga around the world and back. Her run during the period began on Oct. 2 at London’s O2 Arena and stretched through March 30 at Boston’s TD Garden. (The Mayhem Ball’s final five shows fell in early April, just outside of the midyear window.)

In between lengthy legs in European and North American arenas, Gaga played brief stadium runs in Australia (Dec. 5-13) and Japan (Jan. 21-30). She ranked among the top five on all six editions of Billboard’s monthly Top Tours chart, finally topping the list in March. The Mayhem Ball began last July with 29 shows in the 2025 tracking period — multi-night runs in nine North American markets, plus two late September shows in London — and extended into April with another five North American arena gigs that will further pad her year-end ’26 totals.

Gaga secured the No. 1 spot on Top Tours in a photo finish, only overtaking Bad Bunny in the final three days of the tracking period, distancing herself by less than $6 million, or 3%. The famous pals, fresh off a collaborative performance during Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime set, are the first duo to each gross more than $200 million during the same midyear period. Last year, no artist even cracked $150 million.

Including its earlier 2025 dates and final April shows, The Mayhem Ball grossed $362.9 million and sold 1.6 million tickets, making it one of the 10 highest grossing pop tours ever, and one of the 10 biggest tours by women. Including one-off promotional shows before the proper tour began, Gaga earned $419.5 million from 1.95 million tickets over the course of a year on tour.

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