Nine of last year's top ten tours made it to Aus
Bon Jovi in Sydney. His world tour grossed almost $260 million last year. Pic by Josh Groom
Australia played host to a number of 2013's biggest tours, with Bon Jovi, Beyoncé and Pink adjudged to be the highest grossing tours of the year - Bon Jovi grossing US$259,500,000.
According to stats released by Pollstar, nine of the top ten tours of last year toured Australia, while only one of the tours ranked 11-20 made it down under.
Covering all worldwide shows, the figures indicate that Beyoncé was second overall with a total gross of $188,600,000 and Pink was third with $170,600,000.
The highest average gross per-show was the AEG Live-promoted dates from The Rolling Stones, with $9,195,722 per concert for their 20 dates across 12 cities. They also had the highest average ticket price at $287.89. Ranked 12th overall, their world tour will visit Australia from March this year. 17th ranked Bruno Mars also has Australian dates, starting in Perth this March. Incidentally, Mars had the lowest average ticket price of the top 20, with $66.37.
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Fleetwood Mac were billed to tour Australia in November, but pulled out due to John McVie's cancer treatment. Overall they ranked 14th with a gross of $94,300,000.
The only tour in 2013's top ten that didn't visit Australia was ninth-ranked Depeche Mode, who played 73 shows across 68 cities around the world.
See the full top 20 here, tours that visited Australia in bold (with local promoters in brackets). All gross earnings in USD.
1. Bon Jovi – $259,500,000 (Dainty Group)
2. Beyoncé – $188,600,000 (Live Nation)
3. Pink – $170,600,000 (Live Nation)
4. Justin Bieber – $169,000,000 (Frontier Touring)
5. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band – $145,400,000 (Frontier Touring)
6. Rihanna – $141,900,000 (Live Nation)
7. Cirque du Soleil's Michael Jackson: The Immortal – $133,400,000 (Cirque du Soleil)
8. Taylor Swift – $131,000,000 (Frontier Touring)
9. Depeche Mode – $119,600,000
10. One Direction – $114,000,000 (NineLive)
11. Paul McCartney – $113,500,000
12. The Rolling Stones – $110,300,000 (touring 2014 with Frontier Touring)
13. Muse – $103,900,000 (Frontier Touring)
14. Fleetwood Mac – $94,300,000 (were promoted by Live Nation before cancellation)
15. Kenny Chesney – $90,900,000
16. Roger Waters – $81,000,000
17. Bruno Mars – $72,400,000 (touring 2014 with Live Nation)
18. Jay Z/Justin Timerlake – $69,000,000
19. Elton John – $65,900,000
20. Cirque du Soleil's Corteo – $61,700,000
The full Pollstar figures are here.