Coldplay, U2 and Ed Sheeran top Pollstar's most popular touring artists of the new millennium
Who are the most popular touring artists of the last two decades based on ticket sales?
The results may surprise you.
So far, the 2020s have seen two artists gross a billion dollars with their tours. The benchmark was first crossed by Taylor Swift in 2023 with her landmark Eras Tour, followed by The Weeknd’s After Hours ‘Til Dawn Tour.
However, these two artists don’t top concert trade publication Pollstar’s recently published “Most Popular Touring Artists of the Millennium” - which ranks the top 25 acts based on ticket sales from 1 January 2001 to the end of 2025.
Leading the list is Coldplay, with 24.8 million tickets sold, followed by U2 with 20.2 million tickets sold, and Ed Sheeran, with 19.6 million.
Next is Dave Matthews Band, with nearly 19.6 million tickets sold. Taylor Swift only rounds off the top five, with roughly 18.9 million.
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; and Madonna is listed at No. 15 with almost 11 million tickets.
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. She then broke her own record in December 2024, when 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 by Pollstar, Swift has grossed over $3.1 billion in the new millennium. Compare that to Coldplay, who leads with most tickets sold, the band follows with a gross of nearly 2.5 billion. As of September, cumulative grosses from Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres Tour – which launched in 2022 and ran through 2025 - reached $1.39 billion.
Here’s the ranking of the top 10 most popular touring artists of the millennium (ranked by total tickets sold):
- Coldplay – Tickets sold: 24,805,126 – Total gross: $2,486,330,250 – Shows: 731
- U2 - Tickets sold: 20,216,314 – Total gross: $2,187,175,842 – Shows: 594
- Ed Sheeran - Tickets sold: 19,615,334 – Total gross: $1,747,549,307 – Shows: 641
- Dave Matthews Band - Tickets sold: 19,552,586 – Total gross: $1,126,711,752 – Shows: 1,171
- Taylor Swift - Tickets sold: 18,885,185 – Total gross: $3,126,217,400 – Shows: 575
- Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Tickets sold: 18,622,566 – Total gross: $2,016,611;312 – Shows: 721
- Kenny Chesney - Tickets sold: 18,198,369 – Total gross: $1,357,983,712 – Shows: 962
- Metallica - Tickets sold: 15,567,194 – Total gross: $1,456,399,805 – Shows: 562
- Bon Jovi - Tickets sold: 13,904,391 – Total gross: $1,286,252,048 – Shows: 587
- Elton John - Tickets sold: 13,840,415 – Total gross: $1,764,832,667 – Shows: 1,242
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