It will presumably come as a surprise to more or less nobody that The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang tour, recently named the top grossing tour ever, was the top grossing tour of 2006 according to Billboard Boxscore.
The tour, which began in Autumn 2005, has taken in an estimated $437 million, making it by far the biggest tour of the year. Commenting on the achievement, promoter Michael Cohl told Billboard this week: "Not bad eh? And [we're] not done. There are still a lot of cancellations in Europe that the band feels obligated to try and make up. So I wouldn't be surprised if it keeps going next year".
The rest of the top ten grossing tours of the year were Madonna ($195 million), Bon Jovi ($131 million), U2 (who completed their Vertigo tour this year with $96 million), Tim McGraw/Faith Hill ($88.8 million), Cirque du Soleil's Delirium ($78.5 million), Barbra Streisand ($76 million), Kenny Chesney ($66 million), Dave Matthews Band ($58 million), and Aerosmith ($58 million).