Billboard has released their Top Tours of the Decade list. Made up of 25 artists, the ranking is based on how much the tours made, not the amount of tickets sold. The Rolling Stones came out on top, earning a staggering $869,471,325! However, the artist that sold the most tickets was the Dave Matthews Band with attendance of 11,230,696. Using both methods of gross sales and attendance U2 came in second with attendance of 9,869,953 (every show sold out) and a gross of $844,157,925. We took the Billboard list and re-ranked their Top 25 based on their attendance records since that might give a better idea about popularity and it also shows us some interesting data about ticket prices. Keep in mind there may be artists who had bigger attendance; we simply based our reordering on the artists listed in the Billboard list.
One artist far in away had the biggest shift. On Billboard's list based on tour income, country star Toby Keith ranked 24th, but when you rank him on attendance he jumps all the way up to No 7. Trans-Siberian Orchestra also had a huge jump from 25th in money but came in at No. 11 in attendance. Translation? These artists do not gouge their fans with excessive ticket prices. Now looking in the other direction, the artists who dropped the most when you look at attendance instead of what they pulled in, Celine Dion went from 6th to 15th (9 spots), The Police dropped 10 spots from 11th place to 21st and The Eagles drop 11 spots from being the 12th highest earners to 23rd in attendance.
Also something that may be of a concern to the music biz is the fact that this list is filled with veteran artists. How this translates in a few years with a lack of current artists that may not be able to sell these amounts of tickets will be interesting and they won't be able to blame that one on downloaders.
Take a look at our reordered list below. They are ranked by attendance numbers - rank | artist name | attendance number | their money ranking
1) Dave Matthews Band 11,230,696 (7th grossing)
2) U2 9,869,953 (2nd grossing)
3) Kenny Chesney 9,210,288 (8th grossing)
4) Bruce Springsteen 8,605,238 (4th grossing)
5) Rolling Stones 8,236,586 (top grossing)
6) Madonna 6,387,124 (3rd grossing)
7) Toby Keith 6,355,046 (24th grossing)
8) Elton John 5,789,833 (5th grossing)
9) Bon Jovi 5,384,747 (9th grossing)
10) Tim McGraw 5,203,501 (13th grossing)
11) Trans-Siberian Orchestra 5,045,297 (25th grossing)
12) Aerosmith 4,646,827 (14th grossing)
13) Rascal Flatts 4,514,282 (20th grossing)
14) Billy Joel 4,141,287 (10th grossing)
15) Celine Dion 4,099,963 (6th grossing)
16) Jimmy Buffet 3,927,053 (22nd grossing)
17) Neil Diamond 3,845,603 (15th grossing)
18) Britney Spears 3,704,826 (21st grossing)
19) Metallica 3,581,445 (19th grossing)
20) Cher 3,402,569 (16th grossing)
21) The Police 3,327,161 (11th grossing)
22) Tina Turner 3,205,895 (23rd grossing)
23) The Eagles 3,107,832 (12th grossing)
24) Rod Stewart 3,022,292 (18th grossing)
25) Paul McCartney 1,870,274 (17th grossing)
Check out the Billboard list here with videos and some more info
