According to the trade industry journal, Pollstar, the number of fans attending concerts at Dublin’s 3 Arena rose by 26% in 2015 to 591,000.
This gave the landmark venue, which is owned by Live Nation, the 15th highest attendance out of 200 major concert venues across the world.
The O2 in London was the busiest venue with combined attendances of 1.8 million last year. It is followed by The Manchester Arena, The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, and New York's Madison Square Garden.
The journal estimates that the 3Arena’s total revenues were €35.7m in 2015, close to €5m of which was generated by the four sell-out U2 concerts staged in November as 46,784 fans attended the iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE tour.
Another pic from @u2's #U2ieTour gig in Dublin (Fri gig). Enjoyed @rte2 & @bbctwo's Paris gig, pure energy pic.twitter.com/IgSZxiX4nG
— Bree Photography (@ronanbree) December 28, 2015
The foursome donated €2m from their hometown shows to Music Generation - a music education project which hopes to provide music tuition to Irish children. The initiative provides music classes, equipment, and facilities to some 26,000 kids around the country.
Taylor Swift, One Direction, Fleetwood Mac, and Brendan O'Carroll's Ms Brown's Boys all packed out the arena during 2015.
One Direction's farewell (for now at least) Dublin shows are reported to have made €2.7m through ticket sales.
Commenting on trends in live music during 2015, Pollster says that concerts have become more expensive as artists grow increasingly reliant on tour revenues while income from recorded music dwindles.
Fans are still prepared to fork out for live shows - the amount of money grossed by the 100 biggest selling concerts was up by 14% compared to the previous year. The average ticket price increased by 4%.
Taylor Swift was the year's biggest draw, generating $250m in primary ticket sales as she performed in front of 2.3 million fans. She was followed by One Direction, Ed Sheeran, U2, AC/DC, Foo Fighters and Gareth Brooks.
