LONDON — Iron Maiden have scrapped plans to take 2027 off and will instead play 16 more North American shows next spring, billed as the third and final leg of the 50th anniversary Run For Your Lives tour, the band announced on Friday.

The run opens on April 14 at the Tacoma Dome in Washington state and ends with headline sets at the Sonic Temple festival in Columbus, Ohio, on May 14 and Boardwalk Rock in Ocean City, Maryland, on May 16. Bullet For My Valentine and The Raven Age will support the 14 standalone dates.

The decision reverses a position the band had held publicly for more than a year. Steve Harris, the bassist and founder, said in a statement that "as many of our fans know, Maiden were planning on taking a break from live performances in 2027."

"We've been enjoying this last leg in the USA and Canada so much that we all had a chat and decided we should take the show to parts we missed, particularly the North West and South East," Harris said. "It just seems fair to our many fans there who have given us tremendous support for so many years."

For a band whose founder turned 70 this year, and which has already sold well over a million tickets on this tour, the extension matters to promoters as much as to fans. Billboard reported that the additional dates are promoted by Live Nation and that the full tour will have played 107 shows by the time it finishes.

Harris said the group wanted to end with festival crowds. "We have always enjoyed playing the many great festivals that are in Europe and wanted to experience a couple more in the USA which we will do at the end of the tour in Columbus and Maryland," he said. "At festivals you are not just playing to your own fans so it's always a challenge and we all love a challenge."

After Tacoma, the band plays Rogers Arena in Vancouver on April 16, the Moda Center in Portland on April 18, then amphitheatres in Wheatland, Chula Vista and San Bernardino in California, Phoenix on April 26 and Dallas on April 28, according to the schedule published by NME and Loudwire. May brings Tampa, West Palm Beach, Atlanta, Raleigh and Hartford before a final arena show at UBS Arena in Belmont Park, New York, on May 11.

The band's long-time manager, Rod Smallwood, said the 2026 leg had included Iron Maiden's first stadium headline shows in the United States. "We have been selling out arenas in all parts of North America since 1983," he said, adding that the response this year was so strong that "we just have to come back and play some places we missed and bring Eddie's Dive Bars with us," a reference to the pop-up fan venues that have travelled with the tour.

Rolling Stone noted that the pairing with Bullet For My Valentine and The Raven Age makes this the first Iron Maiden tour with an all-British three-band bill since 1983. The Raven Age was founded by Harris's son George, who plays guitar in the band.

Run For Your Lives began in Budapest on May 27, 2025, and marks 50 years since Harris formed the band in east London. Its setlist is drawn only from the first nine studio albums, from the self-titled 1980 debut to Fear of the Dark in 1992, which has brought back songs such as Phantom of the Opera and Rime of the Ancient Mariner after long absences. The band said the first 32 European shows sold more than one million tickets.

It is also the first tour without drummer Nicko McBrain, who retired from the road in December 2024 after more than four decades. Simon Dawson, who plays with Harris's side project British Lion, has filled the seat.

The announcement arrives during a busy stretch for a band that spent decades outside the music industry's establishment. Iron Maiden will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Nov. 14 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles alongside Oasis, Phil Collins and Wu-Tang Clan, although NME reported the band does not plan to attend the ceremony. Earlier this year the group sold a 50 percent stake in its music and likeness rights to Pophouse Entertainment, the Swedish company behind ABBA Voyage, according to NME.

The band's statement said the 2027 shows "will definitely be the last" of the tour, though it did not address what follows. Iron Maiden have not released a studio album since Senjutsu in 2021.

A fan club presale begins at 10 a.m. local time on Monday, Oct. 19, with further presales through the week. Tickets go on general sale at 10 a.m. local time on Friday, Oct. 23, through Ticketmaster, with festival tickets sold separately by Sonic Temple and Boardwalk Rock.