Ok, we all know The Stones have the record for the highest grossing tours, but thats probably cause they charge the most for tickets.
But who sells the most tickets Stones, Bruce, or U2?
Anyone knows?

"No dope smoking no beer sold after 12 o'clock"

I would guess the all time record is the Voodoo Lounge tour but I could be wrong. I think there were at least six million tix sold on that tour.

As far as this last go around U2 MAY have sold more tix than The Stones with The Stones having a bigger gross.

THats what georgelicks posted a while ago:

Not including the ABB Tour which had ~4.7 paid attendance and ~6mio. including the rio concert.



Stones Tours Attendance:
- 1989/90 - Steel Wheels 6.250.000
(3.200.000 US, 2.550.000 Europe, 500.000 Japan)

- 1994/95 - Voodoo Lounge 6.570.000
(2.650.000 US, 2.630.000 Europe, 952,000 South America/Africa, 337.000 Australia/New Zealand)

- 1997/99 - Bridges To Babylon 5.700.000
(2.500.000 US, 2.500.000 Europe, 700,000 South America/Japan)

- 2002/03 - Licks Tour 3.460.000
(1.507,000 US, 1.625.000 Europe, 333.000 Asia/Australia)



All official numbers:
Steel Wheels from Fortune
Voodoo Lounge and Bridges To Babylon from Billboard boxscore
Licks Tour from Billboard and Live Licks CD.


I have aprox. numbers for the 81-82 tour too (not 100% official):
1981: 2.000.000 attendance, $52.000.000 gross
1982: 2.000.000 attendance, $40.000.000 gross ($90.000.000 for the tour)


Tour Gross (official):
1989: $98.000.000
1990: $50.000.000 ($148.000.000 total)

1994: $121.000.000
1995: $199.000.000 ($320.000.000 total)

1997: $89.000.000
1998: $140.000.000
1999: $67.000.000 (US) / $25.000.000 (Europe)
Total: $320.000.000 (Billboard) *
* Other sources (Rolling Stone) said that the tour grossed $345 million.

2002: $87.900.000
2003: $211.600.000 ($299.500.000 total)



The Grossing U.S.A. Concert Tours of All-Time:
(single-year statistics, up to Dec. 2004)

1. The Rolling Stones (1994, 60 shows) $121,200,000.
2. Bruce Springsteen (2003, 47 shows) $115,900,000.
3. U2 (2001, 80 shows) $109,700,000.
4. Pink Floyd (1994, 59 shows) $103,500,000.
5. Paul McCartney (2002, 53 shows) $103,300,000.
6. The Rolling Stones (1989, 60 shows) $98,000,000
7. The Rolling Stones (1997, 33 shows) $89,300,000.
8. The Rolling Stones (2002, 34 shows) $87,900,000.

Guns N Roses allegedly played to 7 million people from 1991-1993 though most stadium shows aside from the tour with Metallica were outside the U.S.
The Pink Floyd 1987-1989 tour also played to a lot of people though the first part was a lot of indoor shows. At one point the top grossing tour of all time was the Jackson 5 Victory tour but that record didn't last long.

since they have been gigging since 62, I'd dare say the Stones....If you mean in the modern era, I heard it was U2 due to less expensive tickets, and longer tours...

JR

stone-relics Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> since they have been gigging since 62, I'd dare
> say the Stones....

Maybe the Grateful Dead would be a candidate for that title too? The Stones have played just over 2,000 shows and when you consider that half of them took place in the first five years of their career, most to that point would have been in ballrooms and clubs. They werent really playing arenas much before 69, and in Europe very few until the mid 70's.

Someone asked a few months ago how many people the Stones have played to in their career. I think I estimated it was around 35 million.

The Dead have probably played more shows than the Stones ever did (I'm guessing, as I'm not an authority on them). I'd guess that maybe the Dead have played to more people in the US but that the Stones have played to more than anyone worldwide.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-10-11 00:32 by Gazza.

Gazza, I once calculated that The Dead played about 2300 gigs in the years '65-95, but I have absolutely no estimate on how many attented.

> - 1994/95 - Voodoo Lounge 6.570.000
> (2.650.000 US, 2.630.000 Europe, 952,000 South
> America/Africa, 337.000 Australia/New Zealand)
>
> - 1997/99 - Bridges To Babylon 5.700.000
> (2.500.000 US, 2.500.000 Europe, 700,000 South
> America/Japan)

Can't find Canada and Mexico there...

According to recent reports these are the top grossing tours of all times:

1. Rolling Stones: A bigger bang $558 million (2005-2007) 144 concerts, 4'680'000 visitors
2. U2: Vertigo $389 million (2005-2006)
3. Rolling Stones: Voodoo lounge $320 million (1994-1995)
4. Rolling Stones: Steel wheels $300 million (1989-1990) 115 concerts

The top grossing US tours between 2003 and 2005 were:

1. Rolling Stones $162.0 million (2005)
2. U2 $138.9 million (2005)
3. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band $115.9 million (2003)
4. Prince $87.4 million (2004) 96 concerts
5. Céline Dion $81.3 million (2005)
6. Céline Dion $80.5 million (2003)
7. Céline Dion $80.4 (2004) 154 concerts
8. Madonna $79.5 million (2004) 39 concerts
9. Paul McCartney $77.3million (2005)
10. Eagles $76.8 million (2005)

Interestingly enough at least for this time span (2003-2005) it was Céline Dion with $242.2 million that grossed the most! She seems to play a lot in Las Vegas...

For 2006 only number for the first six months are available until now:

1. Madonna $54.3 million
2. Rolling Stones $52.5 million
3. Billy Joel $47.2 million

NB. I also found another number: according to the Recording Industry Association of America's Top-Selling Albums of All Time the album "Hot rocks" sold 12 million copies up to 2005 (no other Stones album sold more than 10 million). Best selling album of all time was the Eagles' "Their Greatest Hits, 1971–1975" (29 million), surpassing Michael Jackson's "Thriller" (27 million).

The 2006 numbers have been out for awhile since this is Oct. 2007. The Stones also had the highest grossing U.S. tour in 2006 (second straight year) although it was significantly less than their record breaking 2005 total. I think it was around 120 million. Worldwide they probably did well over 300 million since that was the main year of the ABB tour.