Springsteen tops 2016's highest-grossing tours list

Springsteen tops 2016's highest-grossing tours list

The River Tour by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band was the top grossing tour in the world in 2016. 

Visiting Europe from May to July last year, the tour stopped off in the UK and Ireland for shows at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium, Hampden Park in Glasgow, Coventry’s Ricoh Arena and London’s Wembley Stadium, along with two nights at Croke Park in Dublin.

According to Pollstar’s year-end rankings, a total of 2,406,591 tickets were sold for the tour, which grossed $268.3 million (£217.8m) from 76 shows.

Coldplay sold more tickets than any other act - racking up just shy of 2.68m sales - but at a lower average ticket price ($90.05 [£72.47]) than Springsteen ($111.48 [£89.72]) and second placed Beyoncé ($114.59 [£92.22]), who grossed $256.4m from 2.24m ticket sales, compared to Coldplay, in third, with $241m (£195m). 

Guns N’ Roses Not In This Lifetime… Tour, which comes to Europe in 2017, was fourth on the list, taking $188.4m, ahead of Adele ($167.7), who pipped Justin Bieber ($163.3m) to fifth place. Paul McCartney ($110.6m) was the only other touring artist to gross more than $100m and finished seventh, with Garth Brooks in eighth ($97m).

The Rolling Stones ($90.9m) were ninth despite playing just 14 shows in 2016. The band sold 743,425 tickets at an average ticket price of $122.33 (£98.45). 

Celine Dion complete the Top 10, grossing $85.5m from 584,560 ticket sales as a result of the premium cost of tickets, which averaged $146.26 (£117.72).



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