What Metal Artist Has Sold the Most Concert Tickets?

What metal artist has sold the most concert tickets?

The tally falls a bit shy of 20 million tickets sold at the box office, but this one band is by far the leader in ticket sales when it comes to metal, being nearly double the amount of the runner-up.

The Metal Artist Pollstar Says Has Sold the Most Concert Tickets

Pollstar published a report on Box Office Grosses and Tickets Sold for all musical acts, compiling the data into Top 150 rankings, which was last updated in July of 2022. One important note here is that these totals date back to 1981, when Pollstar began tracking this information.

The Top Five features all rock (and rock-adjacent) acts, with all exceeding the 20 million ticket mark, except for Elton John.

• 5. Elton John (19,756,467 tickets sold)
• 4. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (20,845,687 tickets sold)
• 3. The Rolling Stones (22,137,799 tickets sold)
• 2. Dave Matthews Band (23,279,056 tickets sold)
• 1. U2 (26,178.043 tickets sold)

Landing inside the Top 10 at No. 7 are Metallica with 19,468,173 tickets sold (this figure does not factor in the band’s M72 world tour in support of their 2023 album 72 Seasons).

This makes Metallica the metal artist with the most tickets sold since 1981.

READ MORE: Metallica Albums Ranked

More Metal Artists With the Most Ticket Sales

Pollstar’s figures indicate the Top Five metal acts with the most tickets sold are as follows:

• 5. Ozzy Osbourne (6,006,522 tickets sold)
• 4. Motley Crue (8,593,428 tickets sold)
• 3. Iron Maiden (9,187,132 tickets sold)
• 2. Def Leppard (11,321,650 tickets sold)
• 1. Metallica (19,468,173 tickets sold)

As you can see, Metallica take the top spot for metal by a wide, wide margin.