450,000 Tickets Sold as Backstreet Boys Return to Germany, Where Their Story Began
Write a comment 
For the Backstreet Boys, returning to Germany is about more than playing another run of stadium shows.
Thirty years after the country helped turn the then-emerging boy band into international stars, the group is back in Germany for a ten-date residency that has already sold more than 450,000 tickets.
The Backstreet Boys opened their “Into The Millennium: Homecoming Live in Germany” run at Merkur Spiel-Arena in Düsseldorf last night, kicking off their only European shows of 2026.
And they began in a way that deliberately looked back to the beginning.
Descending from the stadium roof, the group recreated the dramatic entrance from their iconic 1999 “Into The Millennium” tour before launching into “Larger Than Life”.
It was an opening that connected the band they are today with the group that first captured the imagination of German fans in the 1990s.
Long before the Backstreet Boys became one of the world's biggest pop groups, Europe was where they found an audience. Germany was particularly important in those early years, with the group recording music overseas, performing across the country and building a following through clubs, radio and word of mouth.
Now, three decades later, those early connections are being played out on a very different scale.
More than 450,000 tickets have been sold across the ten Düsseldorf dates, turning the band's return into a major German homecoming.
“When we talk about this being a homecoming, it’s because Germany is where everything clicked for us,” Brian Littrell said. “It’s where our dream stopped being hypothetical and became something real. Coming back for these shows feels full circle.”
That sense of history runs through the concert itself.
The 26-song set draws heavily on the catalogue that made the Backstreet Boys one of the defining pop groups of the late 1990s and early 2000s, including “As Long As You Love Me”, “I’ll Never Break Your Heart”, “Quit Playing Games”, “Everybody” and “I Want It That Way”.
The show also revisits material from *Millennium*, the album that became a defining moment in the band's career and included some of their biggest songs.
For the fans who discovered the group in Germany three decades ago, there is an obvious sense of time having passed. The teenagers who once waited outside hotels or crowded into clubs are now returning to see the same five members in stadiums.
That is what makes the German dates different from a straightforward nostalgia tour.
The Backstreet Boys have continued to tour and release music throughout the years, selling more than 130 million records worldwide. Their recent Las Vegas residency at Sphere has also brought the group to a new generation of audiences, with 47 sold-out performances attended by around 750,000 people so far.
But Germany occupies a particular place in their history.
It was one of the first countries to embrace the group before they became a global phenomenon. Now, as the Backstreet Boys return to the country three decades later, the scale of the welcome has changed dramatically.
The clubs may be gone, but the connection remains.
The Düsseldorf residency continues on September 26 and 27, September 29 and 30, October 2, 3 and 4, and October 6 and 7.
The Backstreet Boys' European homecoming is, in many ways, a reminder of just how long their story has been shared with the fans who were there at the beginning.
Set List:
1. LARGER THAN LIFE
2. IT’S GOTTA BE YOU
3. AS LONG AS YOU LOVE ME
4. MORE THAN THAT
5. INCOMPLETE
6. THAT’S THE WAY I LIKE IT
7. DON’T WANT YOU BACK
8. GET ANOTHER BOYFRIEND
9. SHOW ME THE MEANING
10. DON’T WANNA LOSE YOU NOW
11. I’LL NEVER BREAK YOUR HEART
12. THE ONE
13. BACK TO YOUR HEART
14. SPANISH EYES
15. NO ONE COMES CLOSE
16. PERFECT FAN
17. DROWNING
18. HEY MR DJ
19. ALL I HAVE TO GIVE
20. QUIT PLAYING GAMES
21. SHAPE OF MY HEART
22. I WANT IT THAT WAY
23. GET DOWN
24. WE’VE GOT IT GOING ON
25. THE CALL
26. EVERYBODY
Into The Millennium - Homecoming: Live in Germany 2026:
September 25th
September 26th
September 27th
September 29th
September 30th
October 2nd
October 3rd
October 4th
October 6th
October 7th
Limited tickets available at: www.livenation.de/backstreet-boys-tickets
Log in with
or post as a guest
Be the first to comment.
