U2 Keeps Breaking Records

Well, maybe not the entire Milky Way Galaxy, but it’s easy to get carried away when you’re talking about Dublin’s favorite sons. On the other hand, numbers don’t lie and the band chalked up some pretty formidable figures with recent onsales.

For example, U2 sold 82,000 tickets for the New York City-area appearance this morning, 72,000 for the Boston-area show and 65,000 in Chicago, with each city’s onsale resulting in those new attendance records.

Phenomenal onsales have been the band’s modus operandi this year. Fans scooped up tickets at a rate of 6,700 per minute for U2’s Wembley Stadium dates. Dublin’s Croke Park July 24 & 25 engagements sold out in 40 minutes, which translates into 160,000 tickets in three-quarters of an hour. What’s more, the tour opener in Barcelona on June 30 sold out in 54 minutes.

But back to those U.S. shows.

Record-breaking sales in NYC, Boston and Chicago have resulted in additional shows in those markets with Chicago adding September 13 at Soldier Field, Boston adding September 21 at Foxboro’s Gillette Stadium and New York City (E. Rutherford, NJ), scheduling September 25 for a second U2 gig at Giants Stadium.

What’s next?

Tickets for the October 1 Charlottesville, Virginia, date go on sale this Friday, while tickets for all other performances, including the additional dates mentioned above for NYC, Chicago and Boston, go on sale next Monday.

Of course, it helps if you got an in with Bono. If not, the next best thing is subscribing to U2’s official Web site where members are given chances to purchase tickets ahead of public onsales. Visit U2.com for more information.