O2 arena 'world's most popular venue'

The O2 arena has been announced as the world's most popular music venue for the second year in a row.

The 23,000-capacity venue in Greenwich, London sold 2,349,252 tickets over the course of 2009, comfortably beating its own record of 1,806,447 in 2008 by 30%.

David Campbell, president and chief executive of O2 owner AEG Europe, said of the news: "These results really are quite amazing. I want to thank all the artists; agents; managers; promoters, the more than 2,500 people who work at The O2 and all our partners.

"London deserves a world class entertainment destination and we will keep working hard in the next decade to ensure we remain a world leader."

The poll, compiled by Pollstar, revealed that Manchester's MEN Arena is the second most popular music venue globally, selling 1.3m tickets during 2009.

Despite Michael Jackson's proposed residency falling through, the O2 arena's figures were boosted by Britney Spears's eight-night run, Beyoncé's seven-date stint as well as Tina Turner's five-show residency.