Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Is the Highest-Grossing of All Time and First-Ever to Hit $1 Billion

Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour is the highest-grossing concert tour of all time, according to data from live music trade publication Pollstar, with the tour becoming the first ever to gross at least $1 billion. Swift dethrones Elton John’s years-long Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour for the top spot.

In a monumental, near-unprecedented year for a pop star, the all-time touring record is just one of the major accomplishments Swift has achieved in 2023, and perhaps her most significant financially as concert tours have become the biggest moneymaker for musicians. The Eras Tour was by far the biggest concert tour in the world this year, earning more than the next two highest-ranked tours (Beyonce and Bruce Springsteen) combined, as Pollstar data reflects.

The ticket price averaged about $238 each, while the typical show grossed over $17 million as she played for roughly over 72,000 people each show, according to Pollstar. She sold about 4.3 million tickets, and Pollstar estimated that merch revenue alone from the tour amounted to about $200 million.

The Eras Tour became a worldwide phenomenon after Swift announced the run of shows last year. Swiftie outrage from the tour’s infamous on-sale on Ticketmaster reignited conversation around the broken ticket marketplace, both against the live music giant Live Nation Entertainment (Ticketmaster’s parent company) and the resale market.

By the time the shows actually started, each tour date became a major social media moment, and the cities she played celebrated her with honorary mayorships and temporary city name changes. A world leader even implored Swift to set aside dates in their country.

Swift’s dominance has been evident in every aspect of the music business, from concert gross and merchandise to her album sales and streams, and even in the movie theaters, where her Eras Tour film has become one of the top-grossing concert movies of all time. Spotify crowned Swift the most streamed artist of 2023 last month with over 26.1 billion global streams, which amounts to $100 million in earnings. Those streams don’t take into account the other streaming services like Apple Music and Amazon Music, or her over 5 million traditional album sales just in the U.S. 

From Rolling Stone US.