Automatic For The People sold 18 million copies.
Monster tour wasn't as big as Zoo TV because they didn't play stadiums. It probably wouldn't have been anyway because Monster was a divisive album.
I don't think I said they were as big as U2 anyway. All I'm really trying to say is that U2 don't tower over everyone, and that there have been others as big or almost as big. Like, in the first few years of the 90s, Nirvana were on the same level as U2, weren't they? Maybe even bigger? Same with GnR.
Nevermind sold 30 million copies, as did Appetite For Destruction. If REM at their peak weren't as big as U2 and the evidence is album sales, then it works here too. U2's consistency is incredible though. Sometimes someone comes along and hits more home runs, but they're always up there, and sometimes they get the title.
This may have been articulated before, or maybe not. But I think there are two different definitions going on here. You are saying other bands over the course of the last 30 years have been more popular than U2 at some small point in time. Yes, this is true.
But the original statement was that no other band has ever been in U2's unique position because they are the only band to have sustained a certain level of superstardom for about a 25 year stretch (arguably longer).
Sure Nirvana or GnR or Coldplay, etc.. may have sold more albums in a particular year. But that wasn't really the point.
The point is that U2, now the longest running signed band with no break ups or lineup changes, have had a run of steady popularity in both album sales, and ticket sales, that no other band can match.
Even with the "disastrous Popmart tour" - guess what? Highest grossing and highest attended tour of 1997. Over 7 million albums sold worldwide. That was them as failures!!
They've had 7 tours that have grossed over a 100 million dollars, including the biggest tour of all time.
Considered pioneers of live rock
11 albums that have sold over 5 million copies.
5 that have sold over 10 million.
3 albums considered classics - with Boy, UF and ATYCLB not far off the mark.
The most Grammy Awards of any band.
The most largely distributed album of all time (whether you like it or not)
A band that after 41 years, is still both artistically respected, and popular enough to draw substantial interest in new releases, and still the most formidable live band around.
Other bands have and will come and go. They will peak sharply, surpassing U2's popularity and fade away. Some may have/had prolonged "middle management" type success, with some real high points (Greenday, RHCP, DM, REM, even Pink Floyd, etc..) But none have the combined studio and live, sustained level of success that U2 has.