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The Rolling Stones are top-selling act of Q1 2016

The Rolling Stones have sold the most tickets of any artist worldwide in 2016 so far.

A total of 729,292 people bought tickets to see the Stones – who wrapped up their América Latina Olé tour of Latin America with an historic concert in Havana on 25 March – between 1 January and 31 March, reveals Pollstar’s chart of the top 100 tours of the first quarter (Q1) of 2016.

The British rock aristocrats’ previous tour, the AEG Live-promoted 15-date Zip Code tour of North America, was the 10th most lucrative of 2015, grossing US$109.7 million from 628,733 tickets in a year in which just four American artists placed in the global top 10.

The Winter Jam tour of Christian rock, pop, rap and contemporary Christian music (CCM) bands, headlined by Christian pop duo For King & Country, places second in the year to date with 504,124 tickets sold, with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (467,321), Maroon 5 (451,761) and Madonna (380,669) rounding out the top five.

A total of 729,292 people bought tickets to see The Rolling Stones between 1 January and 31 March

Iron Maiden are sixth, having shifted 340,472 tickets to their The Book of Souls world tour, which kicked off on 24 February and is already on its second jumbo jet, closely followed by non-music shows Disney on Ice (339,028) Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai (265,778) and the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus (252,571). Ricky Martin is 10th, with 232,015 units sold.

Muse, touring in support of their seventh studio album, Drones, sold 196,680 tickets to place 16th, with Adele (183,553) and The Who (157,447) not far behind, in 18th and 21st, respectively. Black Sabbath (130,871) are doing good numbers on their final tourThe End, placing 28th, with currently-without-a-lead-singer AC/DC 30th, having sold 120,558 tickets in 2016 so far.

Live Nation and AEG Live were, unsurprisingly, the top two promoters – first and second with 3,306,032 and 2,658,628 tickets sold, respectively – with T4F of Brazil in third (981,090), Mexico’s CIE in fourth (868,876) and Florida-based Feld Entertainment in fifth (658,972). British outfit SJM Concerts, in seventh with 522,388 tickets sold, was the highest-placing European promoter.