Bon Jovi Has The Highest Grossing Tour Of 2013

US rock band Bon Jovi had the highest grossing international music tour of the year, according to Billboard magazine’s 2013 rankings. Billboard’s Boxscore reports the band played 90 sell-out shows, to more than two million fans during 2013 and grossed over $205 million.

According to Billboard’s annual number crunch, 2013 has proven to be one of the biggest earning years for live tours we’ve seen this century. The Boxscores chart, which calculates the gross earnings of the world’s biggest live shows, this year saw a record level of $4.8 billion in gross ticket sales worldwide.

Those figures represent a near 30% increase on 2012’s numbers and a healthy 9% more than in 2009, which was previously the biggest Boxscore year recorded. Top grossing artist tours this year varied in genre, from rock ‘n’ roll veteran comebacks to dazzling popstars, country superstars and even theatrical stage productions. Coming second to Bon Jovi was Cirque Du Soleil‘s Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour which grossed over $157 million, followed by singer Pink, who only managed a measly $148m.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band came in fourth after grossing over $147m from 53 shows, followed by popstar Rihanna at number five, who played to more than 1.5m fans at 87 shows during the year, bringing in nearly $138m. The Rolling Stones, whose upcoming Australian dates weren’t factored in, were the highest placed British act, raking in $126m from 23 shows putting them in sixth place.

This is the third time a tour by Bon Jovi has finished as Billboard’s highest grossing show of the year, the band previously achieved top spot in 2008 and 2010. Bon Jovi’s Because We Can Tour finishes up tonight at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium.

Other notable acts to make the list include Beyoncé with $104m at number 8, Depeche Mode‘s $100m put them at 9, then Pink Floyd‘s Roger Waters (11), One Direction (12) who beat out Justin Bieber (13), Paul McCartney (16), Fleetwood Mac (17) and heavy metal band Iron Maiden at 25.

You can check out the full list of tours and their earnings in our slideshow below.

Highest Earning 25 Tours of 2013

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