2011 3Q Ticket Charts - Pollstar News

The concert industry is certainly having a better year in large part because of more realistic market expectations on all sides of the touring equation.

The U2 juggernaut has finally come to a halt after selling a world-leading 2,387,535 tickets for a gross of nearly $232 million this year. Overall unit sales numbers for the Top 100 Tours is up about 10 percent to 37.1 million tickets.

After a disastrous 2010, Live Nation vowed to do fewer shows and take a more conservative approach in its dealmaking.

The company reported about 14.4 million tickets sold through the first three quarters, which is down about 4 million tickets from a year ago. The biggest impact appears to be on its purchasing of riskier club-level shows, a fact reflected in the Club Venue chart which was the only one (other than Amphitheatres which Live Nation dominates) where total numbers were actually down from a year ago.

AEG continues its steady growth in the No. 2 spot on the Top 100 Promoters chart, with 9,657,843 tickets sold. That figure is up about 8 percent for the first three quarters. Several other U.S. promoters, most notably C3 Presents, Nederlander, Knitting Factory, and Another Planet, showed substantial sales growth. On the international side, T4F in South America, MCD in Ireland, OCESA / CIE in Mexico, and both SJM and 3A in the U.K. all posted larger numbers.

Overall promoter numbers were up about 1 percent despite Live Nation’s pullback.

Arena ticket sales were up about 4.3 percent to 21.4 million. Theatre-level ticket sales were also up about 3 percent to 10.3 million.

It has been a generally good year for large festival events and stadium shows.

The Stadiums and Festival Sites chart was up a huge 29 percent to 10.6 million tickets sold as concert fans around the globe recognized the bargain value of huge events.

Worldwide Ticket Sales

Top 100 Tours

Top 100 Promoters

Top 100 Arenas

Top 100 Theatres

Top 100 Clubs

Top 100 Outdoor Sites

Top 100 Amphitheatres