In the constant effort to bring you a wide variety of interesting announcements, here are the tallies from the popular Pollstar service when it comes to touring and artists that dominated over the course of the 2018 year. I’m going to chime in down at the end with some additional editorial for those who wonder what I think about the matter.

The Press Release:
Pollstar continues to be regarded as the most credible source and final word for box office data. Pollstar’s rankings, which are based on data that is reported to Pollstar, are an important marketing tool for agents and venues, and talent buyers and others depend on box office histories to make informed business choices.

Pollstar received, inputted and verified more than 44,000 records, including a record-setting total gross reported of more than $10.4 billion, and 152.1 million tickets sold this year.

Pollstar’s Top 100 Worldwide Tours totaled $5.6 billion U.S. dollars with 59.8 million tickets sold compiled from 3,691 event records.
• The Top Ten of the Worldwide Tours chart surpassed $2 billion in grosses for the first time

Pollstar’s Top 100 North American tours totaled $3.7 billion U.S. dollars with 40.0 million tickets sold compiled from 3,025 event records

Ed Sheeran set the all-time touring record in a calendar year with an astronomical gross of $432 million.
• Sheeran’s 2018 tour numbers when combined with 2017 is already the third highest-grossing tour ($554.6) behind U2’s “360” ($735 m) and the Rolling Stones’ “A Bigger Bang” ($558m) tours.

Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” Stadium Tour is No. 2 on the Top 100 Worldwide tours chart, grossing $345 million
• Swift topped the Top 100 North American tours chart, grossing $277.3 million
• For all Swift’s touring, she’s within $74.3 million of reaching $1 billion

Combined grosses from Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift’s astronomical tours gross – $777.5 million – comprises 14% of the overall gross of the Top 100 Worldwide Tours.

Four artists – U2, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, and The Rolling Stones – who appear in the Top 10 of the 2018 Worldwide Tours chart also ranked in the Top 10 of 2017’s Worldwide Tours chart.
• In 2017:
• U2 topped the chart, grossing $316m with 2,713,136 tickets sold
• Bruno Mars came in at #4, grossing $200.1m with 2,030,029 tickets sold
• Ed Sheeran came in at #8, grossing $124.1m with 1,525,882 tickets sold
• The Rolling Stones came in at #9, grossing $120m with 755,345 tickets sold

2018 Top 10 Worldwide Tours:

GROSS and TICKETS SOLD:
432.4 – Ed Sheeran w 4,860,482*
345.1 – Taylor Swift w 2,888,892
254.1 – Jay-Z / Beyoncé w 2,169,050
169.2 – Pink w 1,285,411
167.6 – Bruno Mars w 1,290,438*
166.0 – Eagles w 964,245
151.0 – Justin Timberlake w 1,193,365
131.3 – Roger Waters w 1,448,771
126.2 – U2 w 927,034*
116.6 – The Rolling Stones w 750,914*

2018 Top 10 North American Tours:

GROSS and TICKETS SOLD:
277.3 – Taylor Swift w 1,268,706
166.4 – Jay-Z / Beyoncé w 1,298,038
166.0 – Eagles w 964,245
114.4 – Kenny Chesney w 1,297,731
110.0 – Justin Timberlake w 791,780
105.0 – Ed Sheeran w 1,136,497
97.8 – Journey / Def Leppard w 1,000,272
95.3 – Pink w 688,558
88.3 – Springsteen On Broadway w 173,461
79.0 – Drake w 678,410

Top 3 Promoters:
Live Nation w/ 49.6 million tickets
AEG Presents w/ 11.6 million tickets
Messina Touring Group w/ 5.3 million tickets

Top Stadiums:
Foro Sol (Mexico City, Mexico) w 887,802
MetLife Stadium (East Rutherford, NJ) w 521,215
Gillette Stadium (Foxboro, MA) w 454,383

Top Amphitheaters:
Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center (Noblesville, IN) w 588,023
BB&T Pavilion (Camden, NJ) w 505,287
The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion (The Woodlands, TX) w 467,620

Top Theaters:
Auditorio Nacional (Mexico City, Mexico) w 1,325,493
Radio City Music Hall (New York, NY) w 1,004,255
Fox Theatre (Atlanta, GA) w 704,828

Top Clubs:
The Anthem (Washington, D.C.) w 391,835
House Of Blues Boston (Boston, MA) w 325,731
9:30 Club (Washington, D.C.) w 240,156

Click Text To See 2018-Year-End-Top-100-Worldwide-Tours
Click Text To See 2018-Year-End-Top-200-North-American-Tours

*** end of transmission ***

Piercing Ken Thoughts: Based on the types of artists that brought in the most money, I decided to post this missive here as opposed to my PiercingMetal.com website. Perhaps if Pollstar releases the numbers of the Top 10 Metal and Hard Rock Shows I can do something over there. I hope you readers were a part of some of these shows if these artists are on your interest radar. I will not add much more since this was already a lot to read. Chime in down below with your own thoughts about the standings as I’d love to hear your take on this stuff. See you next time.

Official Website: http://www.pollstar.com