The Sphere in Las Vegas is the most viral entertainment in the entire world. U2 has sold out nearly every single one of its shows since their residency began at the end of September.
Once Bono and his Irish rock band leave, Phish is set to takeover for a four-night run at the end of April. While the visuals of the Sphere are enough to draw a massive crowd, adding the legendary jam band and its diehard fanbase to the equation made for a frenzy.
Phish sold just shy of 80,000 tickets in less than six minutes. They are being sold for over $700 on the resale market as of this writing.
Rob Abelow, founder of ‘Where Music’s Going,’ compared those numbers to Taylor Swift in an effort to display the fundamental difference between a “crazy superfan” audience to a “passive listener” audience.
Phish boasts 401,900 monthly listeners on Spotify. Taylor Swift has almost 110 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
Phish sold 80,000 tickets to a four-night residency at the Sphere, which is 20% of their Spotify audience. That would be like Swift selling 22 million tickets for just four nights.
To go even one step further, Swift’s Eras Tour sold approximately 5 million tickets, total, over 68 shows.
Although Swift could have easily sold-out four nights at the Sphere like Phish, it is more so a testament to the latter’s ability to stay consistently relevant. Very few bands, with such a “small” fanbase, can draw such consistent crowds year over year.
Phish at the Sphere is going to rule!
With a capacity of 18,000, the Sphere auditorium stands 366 feet tall and 516 feet wide. It is equipped with the world’s largest LED screen and a whopping 164,000 surround-sound speakers.
Not only are you immersed in the audio, but the spherical arena surrounds you with breathtaking graphics and illustrations. All of the images are displayed in 18K on a curving 270-degree screen, which is about the size of four football fields.
Phis is going to take the Sphere to new heights. That’s not a knock to U2, but their music and fanbase doesn’t allow for the same level of insanity.