After 149 shows spanning five continents over 21 months, Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” officially wrapped up in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Sunday, capping a cultural phenomenon that broke records and boosted economies around the globe.
The Eras Tour, which kicked off in March 2023, raked in more than $2 billion according to a New York Times report, which cited confirmation by Swift’s production company.
That’s more than twice the ticket sales of the next highest-grossing tour, Coldplay’s 2.5-year-long and ongoing “Music of the Spheres World Tour.”
The Eras Tour became the world’s first $1 billion tour last December when it surpassed the roughly $940 million grossed by Elton John’s five-year farewell tour, according to trade publication Pollstar.
Despite being the biggest tour of all time, the Eras Tour could have blown the record further out of the water if resale prices were included in gross sales. Tickets sold for an average price of $204, Swift’s production company told the Times. On the secondary market, however, resale prices for tickets to the final shows in Vancouver averaged more than $2,900, according to ticketing company Victory Live.
Swift’s Concert Film Grossed $261 Million
The tour’s commercial heft extended well beyond stadiums. Swift’s October 2023 Eras Tour concert film grossed nearly $100 million in its opening weekend and more than $261 million total, according to Box Office Mojo.
The two-year tour was also a shot of adrenaline for local economies, a phenomenon sometimes called Swiftonomics. One study estimated that the Eras Tour’s U.S. leg generated about $5 billion in direct spending last year.
“Swifties” are estimated to have spent an average of $1,300 on the experience, including tickets, travel, accommodation, and food.
“That amount of spending is on par with the Super Bowl, but this time it happened on 53 different nights in 20 different locations over the course of five months,” wrote the authors of a U.S. Travel Association report in September 2023. The trade group estimates the total economic impact, including the knock-on effects an influx of tourists can have on local spending, likely exceeded $10 billion.
Swift even earned a shoutout in the Federal Reserve’s July 2023 Beige Book, the central bank’s economic pulse-taking survey: “Despite the slowing recovery in tourism in the region overall, one contact highlighted that May was the strongest month for hotel revenue in Philadelphia since the onset of the pandemic, in large part due to an influx of guests for the Taylor Swift concerts in the city.”
Impact Was Felt Worldwide
That impact was felt worldwide this year as Swift took her tour overseas to Asia, Australia, and Europe. Singapore’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth increased more than half a percentage point to 3% in the first quarter thanks partly to Swift’s six concerts there. The city-state’s services sector GDP, which includes hotels and travel services, grew 4.3%, more than twice the rate of the prior quarter.
According to a Bank of America analysis of card data, Swift’s tour dates in European cities this summer coincided with a 39% year-over-year increase in spending in those cities.
