What Metal Band Has Earned the Most Money From Ticket Sales?

What metal band has earned the most money from ticket sales?

There is no such thing as a wild guess here as the answer should be obvious to anyone with a peripheral awareness of heavy metal, much less a diehard headbanger. This band has also raked in just under three times the amount the second-leading earner in heavy metal has and it's a band that wielded considerable influence over them in their early days.

How Are the Ticket Sale Earnings Tabulated?

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.

Below, we've recapped some other top-earners, singling out just the rock and metal acts that populate Pollstar's chart.

What Rock Band Has Earned the Most Money From Ticket Sales?

Metallica have grossed $1,219,599,179 in box office ticket sales since 1981, making them by far the biggest earner in metal. The band appears ninth overall in Pollstar's report of gross box office earnings from all musical acts.

Who is the next closest metal band on this list? That would be Iron Maiden at No. 44 with $475,817,777 as of July 2022.

READ MORE: 10 Bands Who Broke World Records

What Other Rock + Metal Artists Have More Than $1B in Ticket Sales?

Eight other rock and metal acts have grossed more than $1B at the box office, which are truly staggering totals. Of this crop, just one band joins the Stones in eclipsing the gargantuan $2B tally.

Billy Joel ($1,187,103,345)

Paul McCartney ($1,193,812,645)

The Eagles ($1,314,544,780)

Bon Jovi ($1,329,891,400)

Bruce Springsteen ($1,527,407,373)

Elton John ($1,748,183,036)

U2 ($2,127,771,684)

The Rolling Stones ($2,165,280,638)