U2’s 30th anniversary ‘Joshua Tree’ tour was the biggest-selling tour of 2017, after shifting more than 2.7 million tickets, according to data released by Pollstar.
Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Not In This Lifetime’ tour came in second place in Pollstar’s end-of-year report, having shipped more than 2.6 million tickets, with Coldplay’s ‘A Head Full of Dreams’ at No.3 with more than 2.4 million tickets sold.
The poll shows that live music’s popularity is growing with 2017 a record-breaking year for the concert business. The Top 100 Worldwide Tours alone generated a record $5.65bn (€4.69bn/£4.17bn) in revenues, which represents a 15.8 per cent increase over the previous year.
The total number of tickets sold by Pollstar’s top 100 tours during 2017 was a record 66.8 million, up more than 10 per cent on 2016.
Other artists included in the top-selling list are Bruno Mars and Metallica with more than two million and 1.5 million tickets sold, respectively. Depeche Mode, Paul McCartney, Ed Sheeran, The Rolling Stones, Garth Brooks and Celine Dion also figured highly.
U2 gained the highest-grossing tour worldwide at $316m and the band’s North American segment also topped that chart at $176.1m.
There were 11 tours that generated more than $100m worldwide as compared to seven tours in 2016, as average ticket prices rose by nearly five per cent to $84.63.
Pollstar, which suggested Taylor Swift is in line to claim the top tour of 2018, said: “The most successful artists are clearly getting better at recapturing some of the revenue that had leaked into the secondary ticket market.”
Image: U2start
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