Will Las Vegas’s Sphere change the face of live music? U2’s residency in the highly-touted (and very expensive) space set a fascinating precedent for what’s to come — and helped redesign what people think of when hearing about an artist setting up shop in Vegas. With the band’s time in the space coming to a close this weekend, it begs the question: just how many people ended up seeing the band during that residency?
Writing at Ultimate Classic Rock, Corey Irwin has a good breakdown of some of the facts and figures surrounding the Irish band’s stint in the Sphere. That includes the total number of tickets sold, which is well in excess of half a million — 661,456, to be precise.
While it’s not clear how many U2 residency attendees were repeat concertgoers, it certainly suggests that hundreds of thousands of people took in the band over the course of several months. Irwin has also assembled information on how many different songs U2 played during the residency (38) and how much they made from the shows (a lot).
Dead & Company Might Follow U2’s Lead With a Vegas Sphere Residency
Phish has also announced a series of concerts thereOver 660,000 tickets is nothing to sneeze at, and there are countless beloved artists who have never sold that many tickets over the course of their careers — much less for one residency. However, that number is just a fraction of what another high-profile artist sold on their most recent tour. In December 2023, the Associated Press’s Maria Sherman reported that Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour had sold 4.35 million tickets over the course of 60 concerts. As someone who came of age going to punk shows in basements, it’s all enough to make one’s head spin.
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