The Rolling Stones' 'Bigger Bang' Tour: Record-Breaking Gross and End-of-the-Road Rumors

By the time the last note of the 2007 ‘Bigger Bang’ tour faded, the Stones had pulled in over $558 million – then the highest-grossing tour in history. That number alone tells you how massive the whole thing was: 144 shows across every continent except Antarctica, a stage that cost tens of millions to build, and a setlist that ran deeper than the usual greatest hits. But the real story is that the tour’s sheer size made everyone wonder if it was the end.

The band were all in their sixties, and the production was so physically demanding – stage lifts, hydraulic ramps, full-on pyrotechnics – that it genuinely felt like a final lap. Mick Jagger even said in interviews that they wanted to go out with something “total” if they were going to go out. And for a few years after 2007, the band went quiet. No new album, no major tour. The silence only fed the rumor that the ‘Bigger Bang’ was their last big bang.

But then they came back in 2012 for their 50th anniversary, and later for the ‘No Filter’ tour in 2017. So the ‘Bigger Bang’ wasn’t the end, but its scale still marked a turning point. It proved the Stones could still dominate the industry financially, even as they aged – and maybe it also proved to themselves that they didn’t need to prove anything anymore. The real legacy of that tour isn’t the gross; it’s that the