Ed Sheeran's Divide Tour is now the highest-grossing concert tour of all time
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Move aside, U2: there's a new all-time highest-grossing concert tour in town.
Ed Sheeran's Divide Tour on Friday is projected to officially set the new record for highest-grossing concert tour ever, The Associated Press reports. A Hannover, Germany show on Friday will put him over the top, confirmed Pollstar, getting the tour to $736.7 million in revenue.
This will put Sheeran's tour just beyond the record of $735.4 million generated by the U2 360° Tour, which ended in 2011. These numbers don't adjust for inflation, however. Sheeran's tour has also lasted longer than the U2 one; it will have gone 893 days by the time it wraps up in August, while U2's was 760 days. Sheeran's tour had previously passed U2's in terms of tickets sold.
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Sheeran in a statement celebrated the news as "amazing," per the AP. He had evidently set his sights on accomplishing this feat long ago, with agent Louis Messina telling The Wall Street Journal in June, "He told me before the tour even started — I want to break U2's record."
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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
