Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw ‘Brothers of the Sun’ Tops 2012 Country Music Tours

The numbers are quite simply stunning, but what did you expect? Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw were the top country touring attraction of the year with their Brothers of the Sun Tour. The stadium tour sold out 9 of the 23 tour stops, played in front of over 1 million total fans, and raked in nearly $100 million.

According to Billboard magazine in its 2012 Year in Music roundup, the Chesney-McGraw machine played to 1,085,382 total fans, raking in $96,458,890. That's good enough to place seventh in all genres behind such huge mainstream artists as Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and Lady Gaga.

It's worth noting that Tim and Kenny accomplished this in just 23 shows. Madonna, who holds the top spot on the Billboard list, pulled down $228 million, but performed 49 more concerts than the country duo to do it. Pop rock band Coldplay's tour(5th on the list) brought in about $50 million more, but took 67 shows to reach that number. In fact, no show listed above the Brothers of the Sun Tour had fewer than 65 performances to earn their money and audience. If Chesney and McGraw had done that many shows, they would likely be on top of the list.

The next country act on the list is Jason Aldean, who comes in at No. 13 overall, selling out each of the 59 shows he played in 2012 to a total audience of 984,229 fans. Aldean took in  close to $40 for his efforts, which ranked him above Lady Antebellum. The country crossover trio helped them sell out 72 of their 88 shows, playing before 860,065 fans and brought in over $38 million.

Brad Paisley placed 16th in 2012, playing to 485,852 fans in 51 shows for a total of nearly $34 million. Taylor Swift came in at #24, who sold out all 21 of her 2012 concerts, performing to 285,715 people for a total gross of over $26 million. Rascal Flatts' Changed Tour sold out 21 of 45 shows and played to 612,243  fans in 2012. They raked in just over $26 million, good for 25th place.