What Do the 10 Longest Concert Tours Have in Common? Their Stadiums, Mapped

From Aerosmith to Roger Waters, there are only several artists who performed tours that spanned 150+ shows. What else do these artists and their very long tours have in common?

There are only so many concert venues in the world, so these artists played many of the same venues—some more than once. So let’s take a look at 10 of the longest concert tours and then which of their 820+ stadiums they have in common, giving you a glimpse into the world of epic musical tours.

View Common Stadiums of the 10 Largest Concert Tours in a full screen map

Ten of the Longest Concert Tours

Before we can get to the 823 different stadiums where the artists of the 10 longest concert tours played, let’s first take a look which concert tours even played the most shows.

Artist Tour No. of Shows
Bob Dylan Never Ending Tour 3,000+
Bruce Springsteen Tunnel of Love Express 384
Elton John Farewell Yellow Brick Road 300
Ed Sheeran ÷ Tour 255
Metallica Wherever We May Roam 234
Aerosmith Get a Grip 231
Roger Waters The Wall Live 219
Pink Floyd Momentary Lapse of Reason 198
Guns N’ Roses Use Your Illusion 194
Janet Jackson Rhythm Nation 194
Metallica Death Magnetic 180

Each of the 10 longest tours played 150+ shows. Aside from Bob Dylan’s Never Ending Tour (which is not included on the map due to it being ongoing), Bruce Springsteen performed 384 shows for his 1988 Tunnel of Love Express tour, making it the second longest in history. Beyond this, only Elton John and his 2018-2023 Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour has hit 300 shows.

The top tours aside, two Metallica tours surpassed 150 shows: the 1991-1993 Wherever We May Roam tour (234 shows) and the more recent Death Magnetic tour (180).

Speaking of the Wherever We May Roam tour, it’s one of two of the top 10 that began in 1991. In fact, the ’90s as a whole is when most of these tours took place:

  • 1990: Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation tour (194 shows)
  • 1991: Metallica’s Wherever We May Roam (234) & Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion tour (194)
  • 1993: Aerosmith’s Get a Grip tour (231)

After the ’90s, there were three extra-long in the 2010s: Roger Waters’s The Wall Live tour, Ed Sheeran’s ÷ Tour, and Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.

Now we can move on to the common stadiums of these really, really, really long tours.

Most Common Stadiums of the Longest Tours

With an understanding of the longest concert tours, it’s time to crowd dive into the stadiums they have in common. The following list represents the top venues that have hosted the most number of shows played by the artists with the largest concert tours.

  • Madison Square Garden – 27 shows
  • The O 2 Arena – 18
  • Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy – 16
  • Rosemont Horizon – 15
  • Nassau Coliseum – 15
  • Capital Centre – 15
  • The Palace of Auburn Hills – 13
  • Rod Laver Arena – 13
  • Wembley Stadium – 12
  • Tacoma Dome – 12
  • Richfield Coliseum – 12

The most commonly played stadium is Madison Square Garden. This New York City venue holds up to 20,000 concert-goers and tops the list. MSG, as it’s sometimes called, was home to 27 different concerts from the longest tour list. Not every artist on the list played this NYC venue—while some have played more than once.

In 2018, Elton John said that The Garden was his “favorite venue in the whole wide world,” so it’s no surprise that eight of the 27 shows were performed by him throughout his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour. Bruce Springsteen seemed equally enamored with the venue with five shows coming from his “Tunnel of Love Express.” Three tours: Guns N’ Roses’ “Use Your Illusion,” Pink Floyd’s “Momentary Lapse of Reason,” and Roger Waters’ “The Wall Live” also played The Garden three times each during their respective tours. On the other hand, neither Ed Sheeran during his “÷ Tour” nor Metallica on their “Wherever We May Roam” tour played at The Garden.

Madison Square Garden is followed by The O2 Arena in London with 18 shows. A whopping 10 of those once again came from Elton John and six from Roger Waters’ “The Wall Live” tour.

Click around on the map to discover which other long-touring artists have played at these venues. Then, check out the highest-attended concerts. Or, if you have more of an interest in sports, head on over to our map of former, current, and future MLB stadiums.

Coaster Wars: The Tallest, Fastest, and Longest Roller Coasters in the World

Nothing quenches a thrill seeker’s thirst quite like an amusement park. While Ferris wheels are popular, as are bumper cars and the like, roller coasters usually draw the largest crowd, and for good reason.

These rides have height, drops, speed, and more—though not all are equal in these factors. So let’s take a look at the tallest and fastest among the world’s coasters, in search of the ultimate thrill.

View Roller coaster rankings in a full screen map

The Tallest Roller Coasters: From Height to Drop Length

All of the tallest coasters are made of steel. In fact, the tallest steel coaster (456 ft.) is three times the height of the tallest wooden coaster (127 ft.)! That’s a huge height discrepancy, and there are many other coasters beyond the wooden leader.

Here are the very tallest of the tall:

  • Kingda Ka – 456 ft. tall
  • Top Thrill Dragster – 420
  • Superman: Escape from Krypton – 415
  • Red Force – 367.3
  • Fury 325 – 325
  • Steel Dragon 2000 – 318.3
  • Millennium Force – 310
  • Leviathan – 306
  • Intimidator 305 – 305
  • Orion – 287

Kingda Ka is the tallest among these rides, towering at an impressive height of 456 feet or 139 meters. It’s closely followed by Top Thrill Dragster at 420 feet (130 meters) and Superman: Escape from Krypton at 415 feet (126 meters). All three of these roller coasters are located in the United States, though at different parks: Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, Cedar Point in Ohio, and Six Flags Magic Mountain in California, respectively.

The majority (7) of the tallest roller coasters in the world are located in the U.S. In addition to those already mentioned, Fury 325, Millennium Force, Intimidator 305, and Orion are scattered throughout the nation. However, it’s far from the only country. Spain, Japan, and Canada are also represented by one coaster each: Red Force, Steel Dragon 2000, and Leviathan, respectively.

The 10 tallest of these rides are all made of steel. Wooden coasters, on the other hand, are all much shorter, as you’ll find on the map when you group the map by “Type.” However, the overall height isn’t necessarily the most important factor among these coasters, even related to height.

Drop Lengths of These Rides

Drop length is another height-related roller coaster factor. The steepest drops range from 418 to 141 feet, the lengthiest of which is, once again, Kingda Ka.

Name Drop length (ft) Drop length (m)
Kingda Ka 418 127
Top Thrill Dragster 400 120
Red Force 345 105
Superman: Escape from Krypton 328.1 100
Fury 325 320 98
Steel Dragon 2000 306.8 93.5
Leviathan 306 93
Millennium Force 300 91
Intimidator 305 300 91
Orion 300 91

While the table consists of the same roller coasts as the list of the tallest, several are in a different order. Red Force, for example, ranks at #3 in drop length as opposed to #4 in height. Others with shifting positions include Superman: Escape from Krypton, Leviathan, and Millennium Force.

Of course, beyond height and drop length, there’s also overall length, which you can find on the map when you group by “Length (ft).” And—not to mention—speed.

The Fastest Roller Coaster Is Over 149 Mph

Height and drop length are key to a roller coaster’s experience. However, speed just might be the most important factor for thrill seekers. The fastest of these rides flies along its track at a speed of 149.1 mph, though the rest of the fastest coasters aren’t too far behind, as you’ll see on the list below.

  • Formula Rossa – 149.1mph
  • Kingda Ka – 128
  • Top Thrill Dragster – 120
  • Red Force – 111.8
  • Do-Dodonpa – 111.8
  • Superman: Escape from Krypton – 100
  • Ring Racer – 99.4
  • Fury 325 – 95
  • Steel Dragon 2000 – 95
  • Millennium Force – 93

Kingda Ka is no longer king. The tallest coaster with the lengthiest drop has dropped to second place when it comes to speed. The #1 spot goes to a coaster that doesn’t even rank among the top 10 in height at 170.6 ft. tall. However, that is for safety reasons. Formula Rossa has a height restriction in place, and riders are required to wear goggles—also for their safety. If you’re still interested, you can ride Formula Rossa yourself, goggles and all, when you visit Ferrari World Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

Or check it out from the front rider’s point of view:

Another thing that rolls—though perhaps not as fast as these roller coasters—is the world’s largest rollerskate. You can read more about that on the World’s Largest Map of the World’s Largest Roadside Attractions.

Two Ways to Map Your Running Route

What do you consider a “tool?” Certainly, a hammer or a screwdriver counts—but so does a pencil or even a how-to blog post.

If you’re a runner or even a biker, you may rely on a lot of tools: running shoes, a water bottle, a stopwatch, etc. You may also use a tool such as an app to track your routes. Thousands of these exist, from Komoot, Strava, and O.S. Maps.

While these apps often include a map, there may be times that you want to visualize your route in other formats—and perhaps you wish to share it with others. So let’s go over the two ways to map your running route, starting with track points.

#1 Map Your Track Points

The first way to map your running route involves exporting or downloading a GPX file of your entire tracked route (called track points in GPX terms) from your route-tracking app.

Once you have that file, you’ll need to export the coordinates into a list format to make your route usable. You can do this by diving into the XML yourself, or by finding a tool like this to convert to an Excel format. The result you’re looking for is a spreadsheet with separate columns for latitude and longitude, like this:

Track points Spreadsheet

You can remove certain columns from your spreadsheet, such as the “track_fid,” “track_seg_id,” and “track_seg_point_id” in the above example. We also recommend splitting dates and times into individual columns.

Then, follow these steps to map this spreadsheet data:

  1. Select (Ctrl+A or Cmd+A) and copy (Ctrl+C or Cmd+C) your data (including the headers)
  2. Open your web browser and navigate to batchgeo.com
  3. Click on the location data box with the example data in it, then paste (Ctrl+V or Cmd+V) your own data
  4. Check to make sure you have the proper location data columns available by clicking “Validate and Set Options”
  5. Select the proper location column from each drop-down
  6. Click “Make Map” and watch as the geocoder performs its process

Now you can see your route with a marker for every latitude/longitude pair in your GPX data:

View Your Running Route Trackpoints in a full screen map

However, if you’d prefer fewer markers on your map, the second method of mapping your running route may be for you.

#2 Only Map Your Waypoints or POIs

Depending on how many miles you run, a marker for every track point might be overwhelming on your map. So how can you narrow down your route? You can refer to waypoints or points of interest (POI), a feature of some GPS units or mobile location self-tracking apps that are shown separately from routes and tracks. These can be landmarks, fields, or even businesses you pass on your run.

If your app allows you to add and track these as you run, you can export or download this data and put it into spreadsheet form.

Then, you can follow the same steps noted above to copy and paste your spreadsheet data into batchgeo.com.

This way, you can plot your run by using the milestones you note along the way.

Label Your Route with Letters or Numbers

View Your Running Route Trackpoints, Labeled in a full screen map

Regardless of whether you prefer to highlight your track points or just points of interest, you can make your route map even easier to follow by giving each marker an alphabetical or numerical label.

Labels are best suited for maps with fewer locations (26 for alphabetical labels and 99 for numerical labels), which makes them perfect for your route—unless you’re running multi-day marathons.

By default, there are no labels for your markers, so we’ll need to indicate we want them. To do so in BatchGeo:

  • Right-click your map and select Edit Map
  • Scroll down to Set Options, then Show Advanced Options
  • Locate the “Label each marker” dropdown and select letters or numbers for your labels

Now you’re ready to share your easy-to-follow running route map with your friends and family. You can always copy and send the URL of your map—or even embed it seamlessly in your website or blog.

Happy running (and mapping!)