A$AP Rocky Tour Heads to Australia and NZ This December

The A$AP Rocky Tour is heading back down under. The Harlem rapper has announced five arena shows across Australia and New Zealand for December, the first time he has played the region in eight years. The dates extend his Don't Be Dumb World Tour and are promoted by Live Nation, according to announcements from the rapper and the promoter reported on October 14.

The run opens at Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena on December 5, then moves to Sydney's Afterpay Arena on December 9. Rocky crosses the Tasman to Auckland's Spark Arena on December 12 before returning to Australia for Brisbane Entertainment Centre on December 14, and the A$AP Rocky Tour wraps the leg at Perth's RAC Arena on December 17. Artist presales began October 14, with additional presale windows through the week ahead of a general sale scheduled for October 16, Rolling Stone Australia reports.

Tickets will move fast if the European response is any guide. Live Nation's announcement notes the 25-date European and UK leg sold out completely, and the promoter is pointing Australian and New Zealand fans to its presale channels for the best chance at tickets. Multiple presale offers run through the week, including artist and partner allocations, before the public on-sale opens the booking windows for all five shows.

The album behind the tour

The shows are built around Don't Be Dumb, Rocky's fourth studio album, released in January as his first full-length project in eight years and the follow-up to 2018's Testing. The record debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, moving 123,000 equivalent album units in its opening week, his first chart-topper in more than a decade, Billboard reported. It also topped Australia's ARIA Hip-Hop and R&B albums chart. The album features Tyler, the Creator, Doechii, Gorillaz, Brent Faiyaz, Thundercat and will.i.am, with cover artwork created by filmmaker Tim Burton. Its lead single, "Punk Rocky," reached No. 9 on Billboard's Hot Rock and Alternative Songs chart. More details on the record are available at Music Times.

Rocky broke through with his 2011 mixtape Live.Love.A$AP and has topped the Billboard 200 with At.Long.Last.A$AP and Testing before Don't Be Dumb. Beyond music, he co-chaired the 2025 Met Gala and has expanded into film with the A24 productions Highest 2 Lowest and If I Had Legs I'd Kick You. The December dates are the A$AP Rocky Tour's longest Australian run to date, and Auckland is the only New Zealand stop on the entire 2026 schedule.

A record-breaking European run

The new leg follows the sold-out European and UK run that brought Rocky to 19 countries. According to Live Nation, the European leg set several records, including the fastest-selling rap show in Greece, the biggest arena sales for a rap artist in Zagreb, Belgrade and Sofia, and the highest-grossing rap tour across Central and Eastern Europe. Reporting on the announcement by The Music Universe notes the promoter called the region's response unprecedented for a hip-hop act.

During the European leg, Rocky blurred the line between music and fashion. Hours before his show at the Accor Arena in Paris, he announced his SS27 fashion show, Anti War Global Economics, which drew six thousand attendees and was described as the most-attended fashion show on record. The December announcement puts music back at the center of the A$AP Rocky Tour for the year-end.

For fans in the region, the eight-year wait is the story. Rocky has not toured Australia or New Zealand since the late 2010s, a gap that makes these arena dates the first chance for many younger fans to see him live. The A$AP Rocky Tour's arrival caps a busy year in which the rapper moved between arenas, film sets and fashion runways, and the December leg gives the Australian dates a full week of the region's biggest rooms to end it.

The announcement also confirms that support acts and set times will be released closer to the dates, according to the promoter. With arenas in five cities on the schedule, the A$AP Rocky Tour is set to be one of the largest hip-hop productions to visit the region this year.