When deciding the “best” of something, it’s easy to fall into a trap of awarding the things that were simply the most financially successful rather than the things that impacted you or an audience the most. Luckily for StubHub, their entire being is predicated on making money, so the fact that they’ve labeled the year’s most profitable concerts as the “best” is somewhat OK. It’s also the clearest way to generate a very predictable list.
There are a few things worth noting about StubHub’s best concerts of the year: Taylor Swift, One Direction, Ed Sheeran, and Luke Bryan are the only artists who have emerged after 2000. Also, Taylor Swift’s average ticket price is the highest while her target audience is probably, next to One Direction’s, the youngest — though the fans still managed to fork over the cash.
The one happy surprise in this list is the inclusion of the Grateful Dead, and it’s not really a surprise: the band’s “farewell” tour generated tons of press because of its initially impossible-to-score tickets, and then expanded with John Mayer as a temporary frontman. So, it’s not really a surprise, but it is happy, because the dudes deserve some retirement security, if they’d somehow not managed to attain it yet.
Take a look at the full list below.
1. Taylor Swift Number of Shows Listed: 67 Average Ticket Price: $237 Average Tickets Listed Per Day: 67,000
2. Garth Brooks Number of Shows Listed: 123 Average Ticket Price: $128 Average Number of Tickets Listed Per Day: 15,000
3. Billy Joel Number of Shows Listed: 29 Average Ticket Price: $181 Average Number of Tickets Listed Per Day: 48,000
4. U2 Number of Shows Listed: 67 Average Ticket Price: $187 Average Number of Tickets Listed Per Day: 42,000
5. Ed Sheeran Number of Shows Listed: 57 Average Ticket Price: $122 Average Number of Tickets Listed Per Day: 33,000
6. Luke Bryan Number of Shows Listed: 75 Average Ticket Price: $103 Average Number of Tickets Listed Per Day: 42,000
7. The Grateful Dead Number of Shows Listed: 5 Average Ticket Price: $360 Average Number of Tickets Listed Per Day: 11,000
8. Kenny Chesney Number of Shows Listed: 58 Average Ticket Price: $130 Average Number of TIckets Listed Per Day: 47,000
9. One Direction Number of Shows Listed: 53 Average Ticket Price: $165 Average Number of TIckets Listed Per Day: 35,000
10. The Rolling Stones Number of Shows Listed: 15 Average Ticket Price: $223 Average Number of TIckets Listed Per Day: 33,000