The Rolling Stones and U2 Exceeds $2 Billion In Ticket Sales

Pollstar, a trade publication for concert and live music industry, created a coverage for their 40th anniversary. They analyzed the “thousands of box-office reports” across four decades and created two charts out of it. One for ticket grosses and one for ticket sales.

For both charts, they only counted the headlining shows of several bands. They disregarded those festival appearances and events where the artist or band in question served as a supporting act only.

Results have shown that The Rolling Stones and U2 are the only two touring artists to exceed $2 billion in ticket grosses since the early ’80s. Going into the detail, the Stones topped the gross sales chart and ranked third for ticket sales. They earned roughly $2.16 billion from 22.1 million tickets.

The figures covered the band’s 14 most recent tours out of nearly 50 total. On the other hand, U2 ranked No. 1 for total tickets and No. 2 for gross, having earned roughly $2.12 billion from 26.1 million covering the band’s 14 tours.

The top 20 for gross includes Rod Stewart at No. 19 ($796 million), Roger Waters at No. 18 ($841 million), Dave Matthews Band at No. 13 ($1.08 billion), Billy Joel at No. 11 ($1.18 billion), Paul McCartney at No. 10 ($1.19 billion), Metallica at No. 9 ($1.2 billion), Eagles at No. 8, ($1.31 billion), Bon Jovi at No. 7 ($1.32 billion), Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at No. 4 ($1.5 billion) and Elton John at No. 3 ($1.7 billion).

While for the top 20 for tickets, the list includes Neil Diamond at No. 16 (12.9 million), Stewart at No. 15 (13.1 million), Aerosmith at No. 13 (13.3 million), Phish at No. 12 (13.5 million), the Grateful Dead at No. 10 (15.5 million), Joel at No. 8 (16.9 million), Bon Jovi at No. 7 (17.7 million), Metallica at No. 6 (19.4 million), John at No. 5 (19.7 million), Springsteen and the E Street Band at No. 4 (20.8 million) and Dave Matthews Band at No. 2 (23.2 million).