×

Harry Styles’ debut solo tour was ambitious: nearly 90 shows across 10 months in support of an unconventional solo debut album that channeled the sounds of the early 1970s more than anything he’d done as a member of One Direction. If Styles had made a 2018 version of “Futuresex/LoveSounds,” it’s safe to suggest that Drake might not have broken all those streaming records last week. But instead the 24-year-old Brit made an album that few if any could have predicted: “a bold and brave statement of intent that completely reinvents him as an artist — and leaves a wide-open road for whatever he might want to do next,” as Variety said in its May 2017 review.

But as much as the album was a curve to his audience, a huge number of them followed him every step of the way, as evidenced by the tinnitus-inducing shrieks at those 90-odd shows and the nearly 1 million tickets that were sold for them (final numbers will be available in the next few weeks). By design, the tour gained momentum as it progressed from smaller rooms to theaters to arenas, the songs and Styles’ megawatt stage presence growing bigger along with the venues; thanks were also due in no small part to a wildly diverse set of support acts including R&B singer Leon Bridges, female-led alt-rock acts Muna and Warpaint, and a rousing closing round from pop-country powerhouse Kacey Musgraves.

Initial numbers from the tour — which wrapped last weekend with two dates at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif. — evidence an impressive run. (All were provided to Variety by Live Nation.)
*89 sold-out shows
*Just under 1 million tickets sold
*First arena tour to sell out through Ticketmaster’s new Verified Fan program, with the first leg selling out in 29 seconds
*The second of the two final shows at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., tallied more than 17,000 paid tickets and beat the record for most paid tickets for a single show since the venue reopened in 2014
*Merchandise records set in over 50 venues in North and South America, Australia and Europe

The tour’s charitable impact:

*Raised $1.2 million in charity donations (ticket contributions, Live Nation contributions and matching payments, local matches and the GLSEN PRIDE campaign) across 62 charities around the world (here for a complete list https://hstyles.co.uk/tpwk)
*Registered hundreds of new voters via Headcount 
*Made a major effort for water conservation that:
-saved the equivalent of 10,000 single-use water bottles by fans and 3,200 by the band and crew
-recycled more than 6,500 gallons of water from buses, offices, dressing rooms and other backstage areas
-led to more than 5,000 direct connections between fans and the local charities

And in just one example of the tour’s theme of inclusiveness and “treating people with kindness,” fans united to create a giant rainbow flag at the London show.

Next? “I’m off to write some more music and I hope I’ll be seeing you again very soon,” Styles said in his sendoff message.