Taylor Swift earns more than $2 billion after tour
With 149 concerts around the world, Taylor Swift earned more than 2 billion USD, just from ticket sales, a record in the global entertainment industry.
After the final performance in Vancouver (Canada) on December 8, Taylor Swift ‘s “The Eras Tour” sold a total of more than 2.077 billion USD in tickets (equivalent to more than 52,231 billion VND). The above figure was confirmed by the singer’s production company Taylor Swift Touring to the New York Times . This is a record for the global entertainment industry, double the total ticket sales of any other tour in history.
The Eras Tour was a huge hit, breaking all records in the entertainment industry. Just a few months ago, Billboard magazine reported that Coldplay set an industry record of $1 billion in revenue for their 156-night “Music of the Spheres” world tour. However, that was only half of the total ticket revenue of “The Eras Tour” despite the number of shows and the capacity of the venues being quite similar.
Every concert on Taylor Swift’s tour has sold out. Nearly 10.2 million people have attended, according to the singer’s company, with an average seat costing about $204. That’s well above the industry average of $131 for the top 100 world tours of 2023, according to trade publication Pollstar .
The largest crowd in a single concert was in Melbourne, Australia on February 16, with 96,006 fans. Swift’s eight shows at Wembley Stadium in London, England – the longest leg of the tour – attracted 753,112 people, more than the total number of people living in Districts 1, 3, 4 and 5 in Ho Chi Minh City.
Taylor Swift at the December 6 show – one of her three shows in Vancouver. Photo: Billboard
While huge, those numbers only account for ticket sales—a portion of the overall business around the tour. They don’t include sales of Taylor Swift-branded merchandise like T-shirts, hoodies, and Christmas decorations for fans. Some of the merchandise was in such high demand that she opened her stores a day early, and fans bought it up whether they had tickets or not.
Additionally, in October 2023, the singer released “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” a nearly three-hour concert film released through AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest theater operator. It sold about $93 million in tickets during its opening weekend and ended up grossing $261 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. The concert film also has a streaming deal with Disney+. In addition, Taylor Swift released a 256-page hardcover tour book last month, which sold 814,000 copies in its first two days.
“The Eras Tour” is the sixth tour of Taylor Swift’s career. The singer kicked off the first show in Arizona (USA) in March 2023, planning to hold 152 concerts, visiting 51 cities around the world but had to cancel three days in Vienna (Austria) due to the discovery of a terrorist plot there. Many famous people and powerful figures such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, British Prince William, former US President Bill Clinton, actor Tom Cruise and actress Cate Blanchett have also attended.
The tour helps stimulate the local economy in places Taylor Swift visits. In Southeast Asia, Singapore is the only stop with 6 nights in March 2024. The country’s economy grew 2.7% in the first quarter, partly thanks to the tour by her and other artists. The Singapore Tourism Board said it welcomed 4.35 million tourists in the three months, up about 50% compared to the same period last year. Many Vietnamese fans also spent tens of millions of dong to attend concerts here.
Taylor Swift, 35, is an American singer and songwriter who rose to fame with her country music in 2006. After 11 albums, she has won 14 Grammy Awards, 29 Billboard Awards, and 30 VMAs. According to Forbes , the profits from her tour helped Taylor Swift surpass Rihanna to become the richest female singer in the world with $1.6 billion. On November 27, Billboard magazine announced that she ranked second in the Top 25 Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century.
