Ticket sales at The O2 arena in Greenwich rose 9% to a record 2.5 million this year cementing its claim to be the world’s most popular live indoor entertainment venue.
Latest figures from operators AEG show that the east London destination passed a number of milestones in 2023 , including 30 million tickets sold since it opened in 2007.
The former Millennium Dome also celebrated its 3000th event, a concert by Tom Jones this month.
This year it has hosted 216 music, sports and comedy events, including a month’s residency by Peter Kay and 10 nights of concerts from Elton John.
Ticket sales at the 20,000 capacity arena compared with around 2.3 million in 2019 and 2022.
The world's second most popular indoor venue is Madison Square Gardens in New York with 1.9 million ticket sales.
Steve Sayer, the O2’s general manager, said: “2023 has been a phenomenal year of milestones at The O2 – from headline performances with some of the world’s most iconic performers like Madonna and Elton John, to surpassing over 30 million tickets sold at the venue. Our record-breaking ticket sales continue to position The O2 as the world’s busiest arena and we look forward to building on this legacy in 2024 and beyond.”
There was a marked rise in first timer performers in the arena, with 24 artists playing The O2 for the very time, compared to 12 in 2022. They included Ateez, Wu-Tang Clan, 21 Savage, SZA and Louis Tomlinson.
Broken down by categories there were 865,000 tickets sold for concerts by rock artists including Blink-182, Paramore, Fall Out Boy, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent and Busta Rhymes. Country music artists such as Luke Combs and Shania Twain attracted more than 130,000 fans. Comedy artists including Micky Flanagan and Jack Whitehill as well as Peter Kay, sold 480,000 tickets while sports events included the Anthony Joshua v Jermaine Franklin fight in April.
Emma Bownes, VP of Venue Programming at The O2 said: “What has been particularly exciting to see is that our record-breaking ticket sales have been across such a broad range of genres, from Country to Comedy, RnB to Rock.
“We’re so grateful to the artists, promoters, agents, managers, and all the touring teams involved for bringing such incredible shows to The O2 arena this year. We look forward to an even bigger and better 2024 with some amazing artists already confirmed and lots more to come.”
Artists already booked for 2024 include Take That, Olivia Rodrigo, Depeche Mode, Liam Gallagher, Michael McIntyre, The Killers, and Girls Aloud. Advance sales for 2024 are running ahead of last year and Mr Sayer said he was "quietly confident" of setting a new record next year.
