Guns N' Roses lead 2017's biggest global tours

Guns N' Roses lead 2017's biggest global tours

Guns N' Roses is 2017's biggest-selling tour to date, with almost 1.4 million tickets sold worldwide.

The Not In This Lifetime... Tour shifted 1,390,396 tickets in the first six months of the year, according to US business publication Pollstar's mid-year rankings. U2 were the next best-selling music act, selling 991,565 tickets for tour to mark the 30th anniversary of The Joshua Tree, with Justin Bieber's Purpose Tour close behind on 961,723.

Also in the mix were Depeche Mode (899,447), Eric Church (868,213), Metallica (718,971), Red Hot Chili Peppers (699,499), Bruno Mars (679,851), Ariana Grande (602,021) and The Weeknd (569,006). Ed Sheeran was next with 564,972 tickets sold, while Green Day also surpassed half a million sales, clocking up 504,571 sales.

Pollstar reports that the Top 50 Worldwide Tours grossed a combined $1.97 billion (£1.51bn), just short of last year’s record $1.98bn ($1.52bn). Additionally, the total number of tickets sold by the Top 50 was up 3.5% to a record 23.4 million.

Meanwhile, The O2 comfortably maintained its position as the world's busiest arena, selling more than one million tickets in H1 2017. The London venue shifted a total of 1,039,455 tickets to lead an all-UK Top 3. Glasgow's The SSE Hydro was its nearest competitor, selling 660,101 tickets in the same period, while Manchester Arena came in at No.3 on 622,120, despite being closed since the May 22 terror attack

Cologne's Lanxess Arena was the highest placed arena outside the UK, racking up 585,977 sales to come in at No.4, while the UK's First Direct Arena in Leeds and Genting Arena in Birmingham also made the Top 10, at No.6 and No.8 respectively.

Live Nation (18,669,917 tickets sold) was the dominant promoter, selling almost three times as many tickets as second placed AEG Presents (6,583,114), with the UK's SJM Concerts (1,408,413) at No.5. Ireland's MCD Productions (774,141) was at No.9 and the UK's Kilimanjaro Live (603,878) also cracked the Top 20 at No.12. 



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