Year In Review: Wells Fargo Center Celebrates Record-Breaking Year In 2024
Dec 23, 2024
As the turn of the calendar approaches, Wells Fargo Center will be celebrating a recording breaking year with many fun milestones along the way. Philadelphia’s premier venue for sports and entertainment hosted a record number of concert and comedy shows, record-breaking attendance events, debuted its new retail business, and topped global industry rankings.
“2024 will go down in history as one of the best years of our building’s history,” said Comcast Spectacor Chief Operating Officer Phil Laws. “The sports and entertainment business is as strong as ever, and our team continues to push the bar when it comes to delivering the best-in-class guest experience. We hosted so many memorable moments this year and plan to build off that momentum for years to come.”
Wells Fargo Center, which attracts the top touring musical and entertainment acts in the world, hosted 58 shows (including comedy acts) breaking the previous record of 52 in 2017. Top concerts in 2024 included Bad Bunny, Megan Thee Stallion, Olivia Rodrigo, blink-182, Pearl Jam, Charli xcx & Troye Sivan, Billie Eilish, Justin Timberlake, and Sabrina Carpenter. The arena also hosted a record number of headlining comedy shows (5) including two record-breaking shows. Sebastian Maniscalco set the attendance record for a comedy show on September 27 with 19,511 attendees before Pennsylvania native Shane Gillis welcomed 20,278 fans to the venue three weeks later on October 18. September proved to be the busiest month in the venue’s history when it hosted 14 shows in the month of September.
“It’s no secret that fans in our region are passionate about their sports and live events, and our goal every year is to bring the best content to the Greater Philadelphia area,” said Comcast Spectacor Chief Revenue Officer Todd Glickman. “We were able to bring the biggest touring acts to our city and created life-long memories for our guests.”
In its year-end venue rankings released last week, industry publication Pollstar ranked Wells Fargo Center #7 in the U.S. for number of tickets sold for shows with 1,079,229 and #8 in the country in gross revenue with over $114 million gross. That puts the venue at #3 for arenas with both an NHL and an NBA tenant.
The venue also hosted over 100 sporting events throughout the year including two boxing events, four WWE events, two Harlem Globetrotter games and the second-annual Toyota Men’s Big 5 Classic – in addition to its primary tenant home teams of the Flyers, 76ers, Wings and Villanova Basketball.
Earlier this year, Wells Fargo Center was named by Front Office Sports, a leading media and news organization covering the business of sports, to its “Best Venues” list which included just 10 venues in the world including stadiums, arenas, racing and other mixed-used venues. The award honors venues that have met and exceeded the evolving demands of fans while setting the new industry standard for success.
Following its record year, the venue has no sign of slowing down with an already exciting and diverse lineup of events and shows on the calendar for 2025 including Tyler the Creator, Linkin Park, Nate Bargatze, Tom Segura, Bare Knuckle Fighting, Kelsea Ballerini, Disney on Ice presents Frozen & Encanto, Harlem Globetrotters, WWE Smackdown, and the NCAA Division I Men’s Wrestling Championships.
To view and download Wells Fargo Center’s year-in-review graphic, click here.