The Concert World View

To no one’s surprise, U2 came out on top, playing 44 shows in 31 cities with an average ticket price of 101.27 and grossing a stratospheric $311 million.

Of course, that “average” ticket price can be a tad misleading, for the band’s high-end ducats were priced in the $250 neighborhood and balanced off low end tickets costing anywhere from $30-$100.

But by giving fans a variety of choices, the band was able to offer high-priced tickets for those wanting seats close to the action while at the same time providing comparatively inexpensive seats for folks willing to settle for a little distance between themselves and Bono & Company.

With grosses in the millions, here’s how the global top five shaped up.

1.  $311.0  U2
2.  $226.6 AC/DC
3.  $167.0 Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
4.  $137.7 Madonna
5.  $131.8 Britney Spears

While the above rankings are taken from our WorldWide Top 50 Tours, it should be pointed out that Madonna and Britney Spears made the chart solely through their European receipts while AC/DC and Springsteen’s final totals represent North America grosses combined with international results.

The second half of the Top Ten was also represented by heritage acts but also included a few newer artists as well. Coldplay, which released its first studio EP only 11 years previously, ranked sixth on our chart, grossing $105.2 million, while positions seven through ten went to Pink, Depeche Mode, Jonas Brothers and Metallica, respectively.

6.   $105.2 Coldplay
7.   $103.5 Pink
8.   $101.0 Depeche Mode
9.     $96.6 Jonas Brothers
10.   $89.1  Metallica

Any Pink fan can tell you 2009 was a great year for the star, but what’s really remarkable is that she played 40 sold-out arena shows in Australia, something no other international act has ever come close to doing.

But entry to the world rankings was more expensive than our North American chart. In order to appear on Pollstar’s Worldwide Top 100 concert grosses for 2009 a band or artist had to have grossed at least $4 million on a single show, compared to the entry-level $2.7 million gross needed to appear on the North American list.

Click here for Pollstar’s Top 50 Worldwide Concert Tours chart.

Click here for Pollstar’s Top 100 International Boxoffice results for 2009.

Click here for Pollstar’s Top 200 Concert Grosses for North America.