Everything about Morgan Wallen is oversized, from his two most recent albums (with 66 songs between them) to his chart success (15 of his 16 singles hit the Top 10 on country radio, with most landing at No. 1) to his many controversies that have somehow only made him bigger (uttering a racial epithet on video, tossing a chair six stories off a Nashville rooftop bar that landed mere feet from a police officer).

So it was fitting that he made his local debut as a stadium headliner Thursday, selling out the first of two nights at U.S. Bank Stadium, the biggest stage in town.

The 31-year-old Tennessee native — who has occupied the Top Country Albums chart for 151 weeks total, second only to Garth Brooks’ 173-week record — wasn’t new to the Vikings stadium in Minneapolis, as he performed a 90-minute opening set for Eric Church there in June 2022, which he mentioned early on in the show. But he was much better, and bigger, Thursday night.

He performed on an expansive stage, complete with a phallus-shaped catwalk that extended far onto the stadium floor and Taylor Swift-sized screens that mostly focused on close-ups of Wallen for the cheap seats. He wrapped the first hour of his show playing four semi-acoustic songs — including his cover of Jason Isbell’s “Cover Me Up” and “Lies Lies Lies,” a brand-new song presumably from his impending fourth album — on a second stage at the opposite end of the stadium.

A large part of Wallen’s massive success is his savvy, both as a song co-writer and song chooser, in finding indelible hooks that transcend genre. He often sidles up next to hip-hop and took the stage to a recorded version of Lil Durk’s “Broadway Girls,” a 2021 hit that featured Wallen on vocals. Elsewhere, he dabbles in any number of sounds, from Southern rock to ’80s heartland anthems to sheer pop confections, like his current hit with Post Malone, “I Had Some Help.”

To be sure, Wallen has improved quite a bit as a performer since he opened for Church and showed little in the way of charisma. He’s figured out how to keep a crowd in the palm of his hand, which helps matters given his sometimes flat vocals. Five songs in and he was struggling to hit some of the notes in “You Proof.”

He also flexed his muscles with spendy staging, from the bracelets handed out to audience members that flashed along to the music (a move he borrowed from Swift and Coldplay) to copious amounts of pyro and belching pillars of flame.

For “’98 Braves” — which features some particularly tortured lyrics that liken a disappointing playoff exit from the Atlanta Braves to a romantic relationship gone wrong — he performed in front of some bleachers as an ode to his time playing baseball in high school. He kept the bleachers around for one of his finest songs, the ’70s-style soft rock ballad “7 Summers.” Later, he crooned “Chasin’ You” and “Man Made a Bar” in front of the porch of a mock small-town house.

Given the size of the sheer crowd and the fact some had been drinking since the first of three opening acts (Bryan Martin) took the stage at 5:30 p.m., they treated Wallen with a surprising amount of reverence, occasionally singing along with the chorus in a polite fashion. As unlikely a star Wallen may be to the uninitiated, his fans absolutely adore the guy.

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