Christian music’s largest annual tour proved itself to be the biggest tour in the world so far this year.

According to Pollstar, a worldwide publication that covers the concert industry, Winter Jam 2011 Tour Spectacular was the biggest selling tour this year with a record audience of over 500,000.

The tour has so far beat out all other music tours headlined by some the world’s biggest names including Bon Jovi, U2, X Factor Live, Lady Gaga, Brad Paisley and Justin Bieber.

The 46-city tour, created by Grammy nominated NewSong, produced by Premier Productions and presented by Holt International, featured some of the top artists in the Christian music industry to date. It included Newsboys, David Crowder Band, Kutless, Francesca Battistelli, RED, KJ-52, and guest speaker Tony Nolan, along with a Pre-Jam party presented by the American Bible Society with Sidewalk Prophets, Chris August, Chris Sligh and Jason Castro.

This year’s Winter Jam was the biggest tour in its 16-year history, with the most artists and the most dates since it first began in 1995, when it was originally known as January Jam.

In 2010 it carried on the No. 2 spot with sales of over 400,000 tickets, surpassing artists such as Taylor Swift, John Mayer, Coldplay and Bon Jovi.

Order Online: Francesca Battistelli: Hundred More Years

NewSong’s Eddie Carswell, the tour founder, commented, “We are grateful and humbled by the response to this year’s Winter Jam that only God Himself could have orchestrated.”

Around 92,000 people made a life-changing decision to follow Christ during the tour.

Carswell stated, “It is amazing to think that nearly 100,000 people made meaningful, life-changing decisions to follow Christ and that over 13,000 made a commitment to assist orphans through our partnership with Holt. To truly impact lives is the reason that Winter Jam was created 16 years ago.”

Roy Morgan, president of Premier Productions said the unprecedented attendance achieved this year “attest to Christian music’s vibrant fan base across the country.”

“We believed we had a special line-up this year, a diverse array of performers who were both artistically excellent and passionate about their message. The response these artists received each night was a real highlight of the tour.”

Winter Jam 2011 Tour Spectacular ran from January to April. Winter Jam organizers say “without question, the most significant aspect of Winter Jam is introducing people to life-changing truth of the Gospel.” In 2010, over 74,000 people made a commitment to follow Christ.