’Tis the season for end-of-year lists! And what better opportunity to pay homage to the indomitable musicians who’ve traded their Brooklyn lofts for a life of soundcheck, bad beer and the open road.

Crunching the numbers for the biggest acts on the Songkick database, we’re able to calculate both how many shows a band has played, and the exact distance between each venue on their tour.

This year’s results are especially mind-blowing: we’ve seen a 15% increase in distances travelled by the biggest acts in the last 12 months. As artist incomes rely more and more on the live music industry, it’s clear that bands are increasingly willing to tour further and tap into new and emerging markets.

So, what have we learned in 2013?

Eternal glory for Local Natives! The LA five-piece have booked their place in history as our hardest working band of 2013, with an astonishing 188 shows and 192486 km covered.

It’s a record breaking year. We’ve seen tour schedules passing through more countries than ever before. Foals played shows on every continent in 2013 (bar Antarctica, sorry guys) — and the rest of the artists on the list weren’t far behind.

Willie Nelson doesn’t stop. An omnipresent force in our 2011, 2012 and 2013 lists, the country legend has played a cumulative 442 shows in that time. That’s a gig every 2.4 days, for three years.

Two Door Cinema Club are 21st century nomads. Like Willie, the guys from Belfast have also held their seat in the top 20 for three years on the trot, travelling a cumulative 557,361 km. That’s pretty much to the moon and back.

Pop isn’t dead. For the first time in hardest-working-bands history, boy bands have made the cut. Honourable nods go out to 1D & Justin Bieber!

So without further ado, let’s give a Star Wars worthy fanfare for this year’s hardest working bands…

We salute you!