Metallica Sets New Attendance Record at Athens Olympic Stadium

Metallica began their 2026 concert series with a historic performance in Athens, Greece, setting a new attendance record for the city's Olympic Stadium. On Saturday, May 9, the legendary heavy metal band performed for a massive crowd of over 90,000 fans.

The band expressed their excitement on social media this Monday, noting that the energy from the crowd was palpable. According to the group, there was no better way to launch this specific leg of the M72 World Tour. The high-energy concert featured a 16-song setlist, opening with Creeping Death and concluding with the classic hit Enter Sandman.

The record-breaking attendance was made possible by the band's innovative stage design. While the Olympic Stadium typically has a seating capacity of 75,000, Metallica utilized a circular, "in-the-round" stage. This configuration maximizes the available space by eliminating the large traditional stage that usually blocks off significant sections of seating, allowing for thousands of additional tickets to be sold.

This achievement is part of a broader trend of success for the M72 World Tour. In August 2023, the band reached similar milestones at Los Angeles' SoFi Stadium, where they drew approximately 78,000 fans for two consecutive nights, surpassing the attendance figures of Taylor Swift's performances at the same venue.

Looking ahead, Metallica will embark on their first-ever concert residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas. This highly anticipated series of shows is slated to begin in October 2026 and will conclude in March 2027.