While billion-dollar-grossing tours by artists like Taylor Swift and The Weeknd have dominated recent headlines, a new analysis offers a broader look at the most popular touring artists of the last two decades based on ticket sales.
Concert trade publication Pollstar has unveiled its “Most Popular Touring Artists of the Millennium” list, ahead of its 2025 year-end issue. The ranking, based on ticket sales from January 1, 2001, to the end of 2025, sees Coldplay securing the top spot with an impressive 24.8 million tickets sold.
They are closely followed by U2, with 20.2 million tickets, and Ed Sheeran, who has shifted 19.6 million. The Dave Matthews Band also features prominently with nearly 19.6 million sales, while Taylor Swift rounds out the top five with approximately 18.9 million tickets – a particularly notable achievement given her debut album was released in 2006.
This comprehensive ranking draws on reported and estimated box office data from events that occurred between 2001 and 2025.
Swift is the only woman featured in the top 10. She's followed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Kenny Chesney, Metallica, Bon Jovi and Elton John.
In fact, there are only four women in the top 25: Pink is at No. 11 with nearly 13 million tickets. Beyoncé is No. 13 with 11.8 million tickets sold; Madonna is listed at No. 15 with almost 11 million tickets.
Tickets sold differs from money grossed
Don't get it twisted: It should be mentioned that numbers of tickets sold is a different metric than money grossed.
As previously mentioned, in 2023, Swift’s Eras Tour became the first tour to cross the billion-dollar mark, according to Pollstar’s 2023 year-end charts. Then she broke her own record: In December 2024, Pollstar announced that the Eras Tour brought in $2.2 billion across its nearly two-year run, extending its lead as the highest-grossing tour of all time.
According to the new chart published Monday, Swift has grossed over $3.1 billion in the new millennium. Compare that to Coldplay, who leads with most tickets sold, and follows with a gross of nearly 2.5 billion.
In September, Pollstar reported that cumulative grosses from Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres tour reached $1.39 billion. It also launched in 2022 and ran through 2025.
And last month, The Weeknd’s After Hours 'Til Dawn Tour officially crossed the $1 billion mark, according to Live Nation.
