On the road again… what DJs played the most gigs in 2018?

Life, it has often been said, is one big journey, and that’s even more the case when you are a top-flight DJ.

Using data scraped from Resident Advisor event pages*, web developer Elliot Matthews has discovered the DJs that performed the most gigs over the past year, and whose carbon footprint, we suspect, will take a good deal of offsetting.

Matthews is also the creator of immersive event brand, Trippy Visions (visit www.trippyvisions.com to find out more) as well as a new nightlife social media platform, www.outout.info.

As the data below indicates, German duo Âme racked up the most gigs last year, with a total of 159 shows – that’s one every 2.29 days.

Remarkably, it’s less than the 187 shows the duo undertook in 2017. How do they find time to get any sleep? [Ed: To be honest, they could play Rej every day for a year and I would never grow tired of it 🙂 ]

Hot on their heels is nascent techno goddess Charlotte de Witte, who played 153 gigs last year (up from 113 in 2017 and just 38 in 2016), and Belgian compatriot Amelie Lens, who had 147 gigs last year (up from 95 in 2017 and 49 in 2016).

Gerd Janson (144 gigs in 2018) and Claptone (140 gigs) round off the top five, while the top 20 reads like a who’s who of dance music at present, notable entries include Pan-Pot (138 gigs), Mall Grab (127 gigs; up from 52 in 2016), Nastia (125 gigs), Peggy Gou (123 gigs; she played just 46 gigs in 2016), Sven Vath (118 gigs), Marcel Dettmann (117 gigs), Nina Kraviz (115 gigs) and Ben Klock and Horse Meat Disco tied for 20th position with 114 gigs each.

WHO PLAYED THE MOST GIGS IN 2018?*

Âme 159

Charlotte de Witte 153

Amelie Lens 147

Gerd Janson 144

Claptone 140

Pan-Pot 138

Seth Troxler 137

Mall Grab 127

Nastia 125

Hunee 123

Peggy Gou 123

Chris Liebing 122

Black Coffee 119

Sven Vath 118

DJ Tennis 118

DVS1 118

Marcel Dettmann 117

Honey Dijon 116

Nina Kraviz 115

Ben Klock 114

Horse Meat Disco 114

Looking at Europe as a whole, the data also shows which big name DJs play most often in which countries – 909originals has developed a special infographic below[infographic will open in a new tab] with a breakdown of some of the continent’s key clubbing destinations.

As you might expect, several of the DJs occupying the top position are native to that particular country – hence Francois X comes out on top in France, ditto Sunil Sharpe in Ireland and Ilario Alicante in Italy. We have included the top ten in each country, or where tenth place is a tie, included all the DJs that fall into tenth position.

Nonetheless, the data gives an interesting perspective on the ‘journeyman’ nature of the modern DJ..!

[*Yes, we know there are hundreds, if not thousands, of jobbing DJs out there that would likely put any of the names on this list to shame in terms of the quantity of gigs they do in a typical year. But as stated earlier, this list applies to DJs boasting an official page on Resident Advisor, of which there are 1,029 at the last count. Note that the data is relevant to Resident Advisor events only, and does not represent any events that were not listed on the Resident Advisor website. Kudos to Elliot Matthews for collating the data!]