Biggest Grossing Tours Of All Time

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Here are the top 10 tours worldwide regardless of the years the tour may fall in.



1. Rolling Stones "A Bigger Bang Tour" 2005-2006 $440,982,715.5

2. U2 "Vertigo Tour" 2005-2006 $389,047,636

3. Rolling Stones "Bridges To Babylon/No Security Tour" 1997/1998/1999 $339 million GROSS.

4. Rolling Stones "Voodoo Lounge Tour " 1994-1995 $319 million GROSS.

5. Rolling Stones "Licks Tour" 2002-2003 $300 million GROSS.


At #6 is likely Bruce Springsteens "Rising Tour" which did $158.4 million in the USA, and probably another $75 million outside of North America for a total of around $230 million worldwide. This could be a little higher or lower, and would require a look up of the European Boxscores from 2003 to get a confirmed total.

At #7 is likely the Eagles "Hell Freezes Over Tour" which started in 1994 and went through the end of 1996. The tour Grossed $140 million dollars just from its North American dates in 1994 and 1995. It then did another $20 million in North America in 1996. Shows outside North America were smaller in number, but with a total North American Gross of $160 million from nearly 3 years of touring, its likely that the global total is around $200 million.

8. Madonna "Confessions Tour" $197,754,447

The next 3 tours are close in GROSS, but I only have exact figures for one, which is POPMART, so I'll put it first.

9. U2 "POPMART" 1997-1998 $171,677,024 GROSS

10. Rolling Stones "Steel Wheels Tour" 1989-1990 close to $170 million. There are no precise figures for this tours dates OUTSIDE North America since this tour is prior to 1995 when Amusement Business started to track such data. Because of that, this figure will always be an estimate of some sort.

11. Pink Floyd "Division Bell Tour" 1994 close to $170 million. This tour is in the same boat as the Steel Wheels tour because its international figures took place prior to 1995 and were not recorded by Amusement Business.


The farwell tours by Tina Tour and Cher were both large extensive multi-year tours that might be competitive enough for the top 10. I don't have the international figures, but in North America, Tina Turner did $80.2 million. She likely did as much if not more outside North America. Cher's 2002-2003 North American total was a massive $141.8 million. Also, Paul McCartney's recent tour from 2002 could be a contender but I'm not sure how many shows he played outside of North America if any.





Here is the top 12 North American Tours from Pollstar which only uses the highest single calander year gross total, which cuts some tours totals off.

1. The Rolling Stones "A Bigger Bang Tour" $162 million 2005
2. U2 "Vertigo Tour" $138.9 million 2005
3. The Rolling Stones "A Bigger Bang Tour" $138.5 million 2006
4. The Rolling Stones "Voodoo Loung Tour" $121.2 million 1994
5. Bruce Springsteen "The Rising Tour" $115.9 million 2003
6. U2 "Elevation Tour" $109.7 million 2001
7. Pink Floyd "Division Bell tour" $103.5 million 1994
8. Paul McCartney $103.3 million 2002
9. The Rolling Stones "Steel Wheels Tour" $98 million 1989
10. Barbara Streisand $92.5 million 2006
11. Tim McGraw / Faith Hill $88.8 million 2006
12. The Rolling Stones "Bridges To Babylon Tour" $89.3 million 1997
13. Madonna "Confessions Tour" $88,842,663
14. The Rolling Stones "Licks Tour" $87.9 million 2002



Here are the 15 largest Grossing tours ever North America. This list is based on the entire tour, and does not cut off the figures because parts of tours fall in different years. I combined the Billy Joel/Elton John tours of 2001, 2002, and 2003 into one tour because I was uncertain if they were seperate individual tours or simply one long one.



1. The Rolling Stones "A Bigger Bang Tour" 2005-2006 $300,529,651.5

2. The Rolling Stones "Bridges To Babylon/No Security Tour" $185 million 1997-1999

3. Billy Joel/Elton John $173.6 million 2001/2002/2003

4. Eagles "Hell Freezes Over Tour" $162.7 million 1994-1996

5. Bruce Springsteen "The Rising Tour" $158.4 million 2002-2003

6. U2 "Vertigo Tour" $158,111,235 2005-2006

7. Cher " Farewell Tour" $141.8 million 2002-2003

8. The Rolling Stones "Licks Tour" $126.4 million 2002-2003

9. The Rolling Stones "Voodoo Lounge Tour" $121.2 million 1994

10. N'Sync "Celebrity Tour" $120 million 2001-2002

11. U2 "Elevation" $109.7 million 2001

12. Bruce Springsteen $107.3 million 1999-2000

13. Eagles $104.7 million 2002-2003

14. Pink Floyd "Division Bell Tour" $103.5 million 1994

15. Paul McCartney $103.3 million 2002



While U2's Vertigo Tour ranks at only #6 in this list, it should be remembered that nearly every show was soldout in minutes or hours and dozens of shows could have been added to the tour in North America because the demand was there. That would have substantially increased the GROSS total. Most of the tours ahead of it met demand and in fact did not sellout every show.




Remember that when dealing with the highest Grossing Tour, recent tours will usually place higher, simply because of increasing ticket prices. The highest grossing tour in history is not necessarily the highest attended tour in history. The highest attended global tour in history where exact figures are available for both its North American and international shows is the Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge tour, with a total attendance for 6.4 million.
 
gman said:
Let us not forget that biggest grossing doesnt nescescarily mean most attened! Stones gigs are well excessive ticket prices!!

Thats true, but ticket prices are based on demand. The more in demand the tour is, the higher the ticket prices will be, especially if the supply of tickets is low. That is why the biggest tours are ranked by gross. Its accurate to compare tours of the last 5 or maybe even 10 years this way, but tours from times more distant one should simply use attendance and other factors to compare them.
 
U2FanPeter said:
How does the Michael Cohl promoted Streisand 2006 US tour fit in with the other North American grosses?

It did $92.5 million and would place at #10 on the list that just counts the highest grosses in a single calander year from January to December.
 
US during one calender year

1. The Rolling Stones "A Bigger Bang Tour" $162 million 2005
2. U2 "Vertigo Tour" $138.9 million 2005
3. The Rolling Stones "A Bigger Bang Tour" $138.5 million 2006
4. The Rolling Stones "Voodoo Loung Tour" $121.2 million 1994
5. Bruce Springsteen "The Rising Tour" $115.9 million 2003
6. U2 "Elevation Tour" $109.7 million 2001
7. Pink Floyd "Division Bell tour" $103.5 million 1994
8. Paul McCartney $103.3 million 2002
9. The Rolling Stones "Steel Wheels Tour" $98 million 1989
10. Barbara Streisand $92.5 million 2006
11. Tim McGraw / Faith Hill $88.8 million 2006
12. The Rolling Stones "Bridges To Babylon Tour" $89.3 million 1997
13. Madonna "Confessions Tour" $88,842,663
14. The Rolling Stones "Licks Tour" $87.9 million 2002


Scary to think that The Police are likely already on this list, and may even crack the top 5 by Xmas.

Also of note, The Jacksons could be on this list if inflation was added into the mix. But this thread is mind-boggling enough already.

u2fp
 
U2FanPeter said:
US during one calender year

1. The Rolling Stones "A Bigger Bang Tour" $162 million 2005
2. U2 "Vertigo Tour" $138.9 million 2005
3. The Rolling Stones "A Bigger Bang Tour" $138.5 million 2006
4. The Rolling Stones "Voodoo Loung Tour" $121.2 million 1994
5. Bruce Springsteen "The Rising Tour" $115.9 million 2003
6. U2 "Elevation Tour" $109.7 million 2001
7. Pink Floyd "Division Bell tour" $103.5 million 1994
8. Paul McCartney $103.3 million 2002
9. The Rolling Stones "Steel Wheels Tour" $98 million 1989
10. Barbara Streisand $92.5 million 2006
11. Tim McGraw / Faith Hill $88.8 million 2006
12. The Rolling Stones "Bridges To Babylon Tour" $89.3 million 1997
13. Madonna "Confessions Tour" $88,842,663
14. The Rolling Stones "Licks Tour" $87.9 million 2002


Scary to think that The Police are likely already on this list, and may even crack the top 5 by Xmas.

Also of note, The Jacksons could be on this list if inflation was added into the mix. But this thread is mind-boggling enough already.

u2fp

The Police could top the list by Christmas if sales keep up. But some of the Canadian shows that got released are not selling as strong as I thought they would. I thought the third date in Toronto would have been completely soldout by now. I thought the Edmonton Stadium show would have sold well enough for a second show there, but right now, I'm not sure if they are even selling the second deck of the stadium.

Still, there was only one show to go on Sale for Dallas and that went so fast that they put another show on and that is essentially soldout as well. Very strong sales in Dallas.

Overall so far, they are on track to beat U2 in every market on the Vertigo tour in North America in terms of gross, with the possible exception of a few markets.

For the Summer North American Leg, if they are able to add 6 more stadium shows, 2 Chicago, 1 DC/Baltimore, 1 Los Angeles, 1 Oakland, 1 East Rutherford, plus another arena show in Phoenix and Minneapolis, the first leg of the tour, 40 shows, will likely have grossed $116.5 million putting them at #5 on the list after just 2.5 months on the road.

Then, they just need to play 24 arena shows on the return leg in November/December and that should be enough to top the Stones total from 2005. This is based on an average gross of 2 million for the arena shows and 3 to 5 million for the Stadium shows.
 
Does Michael Jackson's tours fit into any of this? From what I have read on Wikipedia(not always the best source, though), he certainly set some records in his day, even without touring the U.S.
 
He holds the record at wembely stadium for most consecutive shows i believe, which probs has him at the highest grossing act at that venue.
 
vaz02 said:
He holds the record at wembely stadium for most consecutive shows i believe, which probs has him at the highest grossing act at that venue.

Yes. Seven soldout concerts at Wembley Stadium back in 1988. Michael sold 504.000 tickets, plus 125.000 in Liverpool :huh:

Vox
 
The 1997 michael jackson european tour was huge. i know that amusement business reported of those shows( attendance,etc) but i can´t find that issues .Anybody can help??
 
Vox02 said:
Yes. Seven soldout concerts at Wembley Stadium back in 1988. Michael sold 504.000 tickets, plus 125.000 in Liverpool :huh:

Vox

Attendance wise it's similar to the recent 17 night stand the Spice Girls did at O2 Arena in London. Ticket Gross, I wouldn't be surprised if SG were 4-5 times higher than MJ, inflation included.
 
U2FanPeter said:


Attendance wise it's similar to the recent 17 night stand the Spice Girls did at O2 Arena in London. Ticket Gross, I wouldn't be surprised if SG were 4-5 times higher than MJ, inflation included.

If O2 Arena has a capacity of 20.000 aprox for concerts, SG attendance probably was around to 340.000.

Vox
 
Vox02 said:


If O2 Arena has a capacity of 20.000 aprox for concerts, SG attendance probably was around to 340.000.

Vox

Plus the o2 shows would draw from Europe and worldwide, since the SG tour only had about 5 shows outside US/UK.

As for ticket gross from a single venue, on a world tour, I don't know anything that would come close to SG. Closest would runs in Vegas by Elton/Celine or upcoming runs runs by Bette/Cher. Elton was the only act that took the Vegas show to other cities.
 
also, for highest grossing single concert in the United States is held by Barbra Streisand, whose December 31, 1999 concert at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas grossed approximately 14.6 million. Of course, her tickets were extremely pricey, with some going for thousands.
 
U2 would easily out sell the Stones here in Europe. When U2 put out tickets they are sold within minutes where as the Stones have to do lots and lots of advertising for several weeks and some of there shows on their latest tour there were still tickets availabe on the day of the show.
 
The Police tour ends tonight in New York. As soon as information becomes available, could somebody post the results for that tour? While I doubt it will beat Vertigo tour, it is secured itself the #3 tour of all time I believe. I just wanna see how the Police did in comparison.
 
The Police tour ends tonight in New York. As soon as information becomes available, could somebody post the results for that tour? While I doubt it will beat Vertigo tour, it is secured itself the #3 tour of all time I believe. I just wanna see how the Police did in comparison.

96 shows, all of course completely sold out.
 
I'm pretty sure that the Police shows I saw at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, and Churchill Downs in Louisville, were anything but soldout.

I was getting emails from Live Nation beggin me to go to shows this julay.

Of course the final Billboard boxscores will show nearly every show sold out except one show in Germany.
 
Thats true, but ticket prices are based on demand. The more in demand the tour is, the higher the ticket prices will be, especially if the supply of tickets is low. That is why the biggest tours are ranked by gross. Its accurate to compare tours of the last 5 or maybe even 10 years this way, but tours from times more distant one should simply use attendance and other factors to compare them.

I don't know if this is completely true. The fact that U2s Vertigo/elevation Tour concerts sold out so fast, in minutes or hours a lot of times, does mean they could have asked a much higher price for their tickets. The same counts for the Stones in the other way around. For the latest tour the prices were so high, that a lot of concerts didn't even get close to a sell out...
Besides, there are many bands that do not ask the maximum price, for example Radiohead or Pearl Jam...

Something else, should the gross now and in the future not be calculated in another way? since LiveNation is doing/will do auctions and that will increase the gross!
 
The one here in Edmonton Canada for The Police wasnt even 50 percent full so anybody that says they were all completely sold out is getting misguided information. Ticket prices were too high and this had a lot to do with that.
 
Maybe the touts bought the tickets but couldnt sell them on. I guess that still counts as a sell out.
 
The Police tour ends tonight in New York. As soon as information becomes available, could somebody post the results for that tour? While I doubt it will beat Vertigo tour, it is secured itself the #3 tour of all time I believe. I just wanna see how the Police did in comparison.


The Police tour finished August 7, 2008 at Madison Square Garden and although there are 6 individual shows that have yet to be reported to Billboard Boxscore, the tour is now the 3rd highest grossing tour in history, the final attendance and Gross totals for the tour have been reported and they are:

THE POLICE TOUR 2007-2008 TOTALS WORLDWIDE:
GROSS: $358,825,665
ATTENDANCE: 3,300,912
SHOWS: 143




Arthur Fogel, the promoter of the tour as well as the promoter of U2's tours for over a decade now, as well as U2's upcoming tour in 2009 had this to say about the tour:


Quote:
Calling from the Garden just prior to that final show, Fogel shared his thoughts on the final Police action from Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summer. "It's somewhat surreal," he said. "It's hard to believe 16 months have blown past this quickly."" I have a tremendous sense of pride and accomplishment on this one," he said. "Clearly, they're one of the biggest bands of all time, and this tour has just proven how strong an act they are around the world. They weren't together that long, and so much time has passed, yet the music has endured." "Rarely do you say, 'I think it's as it should have been,' as opposed to, 'I should have done it this or that way,'" Fogel said. "I really feel that it played out perfectly."




Here are the top 8 grossing tours of all time! Notice the Police are at #3 with $358 million in gross. Also, notice that there are only 8 tours that have actually made it past the $200 million mark, which is only a little more than half of what the Police just did.

1. Rolling Stones "A Bigger Bang Tour" 2005-2006 $558 million

2. U2 "Vertigo Tour" 2005-2006 $389 million

3. The Police "Tour" 2007-2008 $358 million

4. Rolling Stones "Bridges To Babylon/No Security Tour" 1997-1999 $339 million

5. Rolling Stones "Voodoo Lounge Tour " 1994-1995 $319 million

6. Rolling Stones "Licks Tour" 2002-2003 $300 million

7. Bruce Springsteen "Rising Tour" 2002-2003 $238 million

8. Bon Jovi "Tour 2007-2008" $207 million



The Police tour grossed nearly FOUR times what the Van Halen Reunion tour was able to do. The Van Halen reunion with David Lee Roth finished out at a $94 million dollar gross.

Here are the full gross and attendance figures for both the Police tour and U2's Vertigo Tour side by side:

THE POLICE TOUR 2007-2008 TOTALS WORLDWIDE:
GROSS: $358,825,665
ATTENDANCE: 3,300,912
SHOWS: 143

U2 VERTIGO TOUR TOTALS WORLDWIDE:
GROSS: $389,047,636
ATTENDANCE: 4,619,021
SHOWS: 131
 
The Police tour grossed nearly FOUR times what the Van Halen Reunion tour was able to do. The Van Halen reunion with David Lee Roth finished out at a $94 million dollar gross.

For whatever reason(likely selfish) Van Halen never left North America. How do the US/Canada dates directly compare(including VHs fat paycheck Quebec City gig that may not have a boxscore)?
 
For whatever reason(likely selfish) Van Halen never left North America.

The likely reason that the Van Halen re-union did not tour outside United States/Canada is that the demand was really just not there. Van Halen historically rarely tours outside of North America because of this. Based on the proportion of album sales sold outside the USA/Canada by Van Halen, your probably looking at an international tour only bringing in another $30 million to $50 million maximum.

Anyways, the Police's total gross in the USA/Canada to date is:

$171,675,695

This figure does not include the last 3 shows, two at Jones Beach, one at Madison Square Garden which have not been reported yet and will likely bring in another $6 million in gross.

So that would be about $178 million for the USA/Canada, the third highest figure ever for the USA/Canada and $35 million more than U2's highest figure for the USA/Canada so far. Its the 3rd highest figure ever for the USA/Canada and only $3 million short of the $181 million the Rolling Stones did on Bridges To Babylon/No Security which is in 2nd place in that area.
 
The likely reason that the Van Halen re-union did not tour outside United States/Canada is that the demand was really just not there. Van Halen historically rarely tours outside of North America because of this. Based on the proportion of album sales sold outside the USA/Canada by Van Halen, your probably looking at an international tour only bringing in another $30 million to $50 million maximum.

Sounds similar to the Spice Girls - a world tour that only included 5 countries and only several shows outside UK/US. Despite VH and SG doing press conferences with ambitious worldwide plans.

I would have thought VH could do Ok in some Euro markets, but maybe not enough to make a full tour. Same with Japan/Asia.

One would think VH would go over well in Australian culture, but only the Cherone version of the band has ever played there!!!!

Is there ANY future plans for VH? Not even a hits cd, any back catalgue reissue or a live DVD was released in conjunction with that tour.
 
Sounds similar to the Spice Girls - a world tour that only included 5 countries and only several shows outside UK/US. Despite VH and SG doing press conferences with ambitious worldwide plans.

I would have thought VH could do Ok in some Euro markets, but maybe not enough to make a full tour. Same with Japan/Asia.

One would think VH would go over well in Australian culture, but only the Cherone version of the band has ever played there!!!!

Is there ANY future plans for VH? Not even a hits cd, any back catalgue reissue or a live DVD was released in conjunction with that tour.


I would say SG has many more opportunities to play in a variety of countries than Van Halen since their biggest albums were popular all over the world.

Van Halen has been strangely silent since they finished the tour. I actually did think they would try at least a few shows outside the USA/Canada, but they obviously decided not to do it. I have heard a rumor that Eddie Van Halen has 3 albums worth of material ready to go. Perhaps they will record a new album with Roth.
 
The highest grossing tours don't necessarily equate to or determine who is the largest draw. For example, Madonna & Barbra Streisand only play 50 shows or less when they tour. But overall, both artists are larger draws than U2, The Police, etc...
 
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