Topline
Pop star Taylor Swift, who became a billionaire late last year, ended her worldwide Eras Tour Sunday after grossing a record $2 billion in ticket sales, her production company confirmed to The New York Times, twice as much as any other tour in history.
Taylor Swift performs onstage during the Eras Tour on Nov. 14, 2024 in Toronto, Ontario.
Key Facts
The ticket sales confirmation is the first time Swift’s team has disclosed any data around the much-speculated-about Eras Tour, though music industry trade publication Pollstar used box office reports, venue capacity estimates and other research to estimate the tour had crossed the billion-dollar mark by last November.
Swift’s team told The Times 10,168,008 people attended the 149 shows across six continents, giving each seat a $204 average price despite sky-high resale prices that saw some tickets sold on the secondary market for thousands of dollars each.
The $2 billion gross doubles the previous industry record of $1 billion set by Coldplay’s 156-date Music of the Spheres World Tour in August.
Other records Swift broke on the Eras Tour included attendance at venues like Wembley Stadium, spawning the highest-grossing concert film of all time and the record for the most mobile data used during a standalone concert.
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Big Number
$73. That was the difference in average ticket price between Swift’s Era Tour ($204) and the top 100 tours around the world in 2023 ($131), according to Pollstar.
Contra
The $2 billion ticket sale gross does not paint a complete picture of how much the Eras Tour made over the last 21 months. Not included is merchandise sales, tickets to the “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” film or ”Eras Tour Book” and other revenue streams.
Forbes Valuation
Forbes named Swift the latest musician to become a billionaire last October, roughly seven months into the Eras Tour. Her net worth now stands at an estimated $1.6 billion. She pocketed an estimated $190 million after taxes from the first leg of the Eras tour and another $35 million from the first two weeks of screenings of “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” movie. Forbes estimated that about $500 million of her fortune was cash from music royalties and touring, another $500 million was from the increasing value of her music catalog—much of which she has been re-recording and releasing—and $125 million of her net worth comes from real estate.
Key Background
The Eras Tour saw Swift perform a total of 149 shows—three scheduled dates in Vienna were canceled due to the discovery of a terrorism plot—on five continents between March 17, 2023 and Dec. 8, 204. Each show was 3.5 hours long and included music from across Swift’s 18-year career. Over the course of the tour, Swift announced the release of two re-recorded albums (“Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” and “1989 (Taylor’s Version)”) and released her 11th studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department.” She released her documentary concert film in October of 2023 and self published a photo book about the tour two weeks ago. The Eras Tour was Swift’s first tour since 2018 after Lover Fest, a planned tour scheduled to begin in 2020, was canceled due to the Covid pandemic.
