New York (AP) — Much has been made about the global touring economy in the last few years. Take, for example, that tours grossing over a billion dollars is a new phenomenon in the 2020s — a benchmark first crossed by Taylor Swift in 2023 with her landmark Eras Tour and an accomplishment recently reached by The Weeknd. But who are the most popular touring artists of the last two decades based on ticket sales? The results may surprise you.
On Monday, in advance of Pollstar's 2025 year-end issue, the concert trade publication ranked the top 25 “Most Popular Touring Artists of the Millennium,” based on ticket sales from Jan. 1, 2001, to the end of 2025. Leading the list? Coldplay with 24.8 million tickets sold. Next, is U2, with 20.2 million tickets sold, and Ed Sheeran, with 19.6 million.
Rounding out the top five is Dave Matthews Band, with nearly 19.6 million tickets sold, and Swift, with roughly 18.9 million. Keep in mind that her debut album was released in 2006.
Pollstar chart data is pulled from 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.
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.
FILE - Jonny Buckland, from left, Chris Martin, Will Champion, and Guy Berryman of Coldplay performs a song from the band's 10th studio album "Moon Music" on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, in the Williamsburg section of the Brooklyn borough of New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, file)
This combination of images shows Bono, from left, Chris Martin, and Ed Sheeran. (AP Photo)
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is holding steadier Tuesday as Wall Street waits for the next signal on when the war with Iran may end.
The S&P 500 was down 0.1% in late trading after having been up as much as 0.7% earlier in the day. The benchmark index had reacted with wild swings a day earlier following extreme moves in the oil market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 42 points, or 0.1%, as of 3:30 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was essentially flat.
Oil prices, meanwhile, continued to fall further below where they were late Monday. Spikes there have been rocking financial markets worldwide because of worries that the war could block the global flow of oil and natural gas for a long time.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, settled at $87.80. That’s down 11.3% from its settlement price the day before. Much of that decline happened before the U.S. stock market finished trading on Monday. That's why the drop did not give much of a boost to U.S. stocks Tuesday.
A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude also closed lower, settling 11.9% below where it was late Monday, at $83.45.
Oil prices plunged Monday afternoon from a high of nearly $120 per barrel, its most expensive level since 2022, after President Donald Trump told CBS News he thinks “the war is very complete, pretty much.” That raised hopes that the war may end sooner than later, which could allow oil to flow freely again from the Middle East to customers around the world.
But Trump’s comments later Monday, after the U.S. stock market finished trading, were not as clear. And a spokesperson for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said that “Iran will determine when the war ends.” Iran launched new attacks Tuesday at Israel and Gulf Arab countries, keeping pressure on the Middle East in a war started by Israel and the United States.
That has Wall Street waiting for the next clue about how long the war may last.
One point where Trump remained clear was his desire to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. The war has effectively blocked much of the waterway off Iran’s coast, where a fifth of the world’s oil sails on a typical day. That's been a central reason for oil prices' extreme swings recently, which have dominated other financial markets and raised worries about the global economy.
“If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far,” Trump said in a posting on his social media network late Monday.
“The outlook for oil right now is about as binary as it gets,” according to Hakan Kaya, senior portfolio manager at Neuberger Berman.
“Either the Strait of Hormuz reopens and you see a massive unwind of the risk premium, or it stays shut and we are looking at the largest supply disruption in modern history. There is no middle ground, and that is why putting a number on it is almost irresponsible.”
The International Energy Association said it will hold a meeting on Tuesday to discuss whether the 32 countries that are members should release some of their oil stockpiles to push downward on the price of oil.
The U.S. stock market has a history of bouncing back relatively quickly from past military conflicts, as long as oil prices don’t stay too high for too long. Uncertainty about whether that may happen this time around has led to stunning swings up and down for markets worldwide, often hour-to-hour.
If oil prices do stay high for long, household budgets already stretched by high inflation could break under the pressure. Companies would see their own bills jump for fuel and to stock items on their store shelves or in their data warehouses. It all raises the possibility of a worst-case scenario for the global economy, “stagflation,” where growth stagnates and inflation remains high.
On Wall Street, Vertex Pharmaceuticals leaped 8% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500 after reporting encouraging trends from a trial for its treatment for a life-threatening kind of kidney disease.
Stock markets in Asia and Europe jumped in their first chances to react to Trump’s comments from late Monday and the subsequent easing of oil prices. Indexes leaped 5.3% in South Korea, 2.2% in Hong Kong and 1.8% in France.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 2.9% after the government also released revised economic data showing Japan’s economy grew faster in the final quarter of last year than initially estimated.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.14% from 4.12% late Monday.
AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott and AP Videographer Ayaka McGill contributed.
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Meric Greenbaum works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
The New York Stock Exchange is seen in New York, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Pedestrians mill about outside the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
U.S. President Donald Trump is seen on a screen as traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency trader react near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), rear left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), rear center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, rear left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
