Official: Taylor Swift’s Eras is first $1bn tour

Taylor Swift’s planet-conquering Eras Tour has officially become the first tour in history to surpass $1 billion in revenue.

The American superstar has come out on top in an unprecedented year for the concert industry, with business up double-digit percentages in virtually every metric, according to Pollstar’s 2023 Year-End charts.

Total grosses for the Top 100 Worldwide Tours were up 46% to a $9.17bn (2022’s total was $6.28bn) and attendance was up 18.38% in total tickets sold to 70.1 million (2022’s total was 59.2m).

Swift took in an estimated ticket gross of $1.04bn, with 4.35m tickets sold from 60 shows, with the run calculated to have generated an additional $200m in merchandise sales, while Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert movie exceeded $250m in worldwide ticket sales, making it the highest-grossing concert movie of all time.

Pollstar projects that Eras Tour ticket sales will again hit $1bn in the next box office year, taking its overall total to more than $2bn.

“The live entertainment industry remains in the midst of a record-breaking Golden Era”

The rest of the Top 10 rankings on 2023’s Worldwide Tours are occupied by Beyoncé (No. 2), Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (No. 3), Coldplay (No. 4), Harry Styles (No. 5), Morgan Wallen (No. 6), Ed Sheeran (No. 7), P!nk (No. 8), The Weeknd (No. 9), and Drake (No. 10).

“This has been the Year of the Blockbuster, none earning that title more than Taylor Swift’s cultural takeover in Eras, Pollstar‘s first-ever billion-dollar tour,” says Ray Waddell, president of Oak View Group’s media & conferences division, which oversees Pollstar and sister publication VenuesNow. “The live entertainment industry remains in the midst of a record-breaking Golden Era, marked by innovation and creativity, artist development, and a paradigm shift in fan experience, as defined by the Sphere in Las Vegas and U2’s amazing run.”

The annual Pollstar ranking of the concert industry’s top performing artists covers shows held between 17 November 2022 and 15 November 2023.

Swift has led a touring boom in 2023, with more tours than ever grossing above $300m (three), $200m (seven) and $100m (17).

“This is precisely why FanFair Alliance is now pushing for the UK to adopt more consumer-friendly legislation that closes these kinds of loopholes”

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that secondary ticketing platforms are circumventing Australian regulations banning for-profit resale of tickets for the tour. The New South Wales and Victorian governments moved to crack down on scalping earlier this year after prices in excess of $3,000 were listed for the singer’s 2024 dates in Sydney and Melbourne.

The restrictions made it illegal to resell tickets for more than 10% over face value, with those that fail to comply facing large fines. However, the Times reports that Viagogo appears to have contravened the legislation by geoblocking resale tickets for the Australian shows and enabling fans from outside Australia to buy them. Viagogo has not commented on the report.

A spokesperson for UK campaign group FanFair Alliance tells IQ: “This is precisely why [we are] now pushing for the UK to adopt more consumer-friendly legislation that closes these kinds of loopholes, provides audiences with better services and outlaws the resale of tickets for profit.”

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