The Top 20 worldwide tours of 2015 - who made the list?
BY MELISSA RUGGIERI
Taylor Swift dominated record sales the first part of 2015 and then commandeered stages the rest of the year.
No shock, then, that the fully transformed pop superstar achieved the top-grossing worldwide tour of 2015, according to concert industry trade publication Pollstar.
(She was also my pick for the best concert of 2015.)
Swift grossed $250.4 million from 83 shows in 53 cities on her "1989" tour, which played to more than 55,000 people at a sold-out Georgia Dome in October.
The Queen of Everything is followed by AC/DC with $180 million gross ( the band performs in Atlanta March 8 ); One Direction with $158.8 million; U2 with $152.2 million (I'm hearing we won't see them around here until 2017); Foo Fighters with $127 million ( remember this show? ); Fleetwood Mac with $125.1 million; Ed Sheeran with $117.3 million; Kenny Chesney (another Georgia Dome star last year ) with $116.4 million; Garth Brooks with $114.9 million; and The Rolling Stones with $109.7 million. Included in that tally are the band's earnings from their June concert at Georgia Tech.
Keep in mind that the workloads for these artists varied greatly.
For example, Sheeran’s money comes from 110 shows, while the Stones took in their $100-million-plus at a mere 14 concerts.
Of note, the Stones also had the highest average ticket price ($174.50). At the other end of the price spectrum is Leesburg's Luke Bryan, who hauled in $71.8 million (No. 17 on the list) with the lowest average ticket ($55.48).
According to Pollstar, the Top 20 worldwide tours grossed more than $2.2 billion and sold more than 24 million tickets, an increase of $200 million and 4 million tickets from 2014.
About the Author
Melissa Ruggieri has covered music and entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 2010 and created the Atlanta Music Scene blog. She's kept vampire hours for more than two decades and remembers when MTV was awesome.
