It took him 239 shows to do what U2 did with 110. U2 could have done more shows and grossed well over $800m.
Still, Good for Ed. As a 37 year old man, I am not in his target demographic and I don’t know much of his music, but that’s quite an accomplishment. He still has shows left on his tour, so I wonder how high he’ll go.
I think that in a couple years, if U2 are willing to do a 2 year long stadium tour with about 120 shows, they could take the record back. But, they’ve already tapped out the Asian and Australian market for awhile, and it’ll take a couple more years to recharge the US demand. Europe, however, hasn’t really come close to meeting the demand there since 2010.