Holy crap! Ed Sheeran surpasses U2 for the highest-grossing tour of all time.

August 3, 2019 Alan Cross 0 Comments 0 min read

Ed Sheeran has been a godsend to the touring industry. Wherever the ginger muppet plays, he packs ’em in.

On Pollstar’s latest chart of highest-grossing concert tours, Sheeran has been #1 for four weeks, selling an average 58,739 tickets over the last 11 dates of his Divide tour.

This road trip, which has been running for two-and-a-half years and 246 shows, is projected to have a final box office gross of US$736.7 million when it wraps up on August 26. That figure beats out U2’s 360 Tour, which hauled in US$735.4 million in 2011. (We can adjust for inflation, making U2 still on top, but that’s a quibble. And the 360 Tour covered just 110 shows.)

Here’s the current chart of the highest-grossing current tours.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

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