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Touring

Record-breaking year for touring, Eras Tour becomes first $1bn tour

Featured Image: Paolo V/ CC BY 2.0/Edited for size

Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’ has become the first tour in history to cross the billion-dollar threshold, while 2023 is a second consecutive record-breaking year for top 100 worldwide and North American touring grosses.

The Eras Tour also ranked at number one on trade publication Pollstar’s 2023 Year-End Top Worldwide Tours and Top North American Tours charts, while the top 100 tours  for each raked in $9.17bn (£7.3bn/€8.5bn) and $6.63bn, respectively. 

During Pollstar’s eligibility box office year – which ran from November 17, 2022 to November 15, 2023 – Swift took an estimated ticket gross of $1.04bn, with 4.35 million tickets sold from the 60 shows that took place during this period. 

Not only this, but ‘Eras Tour’ merchandise sales have equated to roughly $200m during the run so far. Elsewhere, the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert movie crossed the $250m mark in worldwide ticket sales, making it the highest-grossing concert movie of all time. 

Additionally, it has been predicted that the Eras Tour will bring in another $1bn in 2024, bringing its ticketing revenues to more than $2bn. 

The top 10 rankings on the Worldwide Tours chart were Swift, Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Coldplay, Harry Styles, Morgan Wallen, Ed Sheeran, P!NK, The Weeknd and Drake. 

Total grosses for the worldwide top 100 tours were up 46% to reach a record-breaking $9.17bn compared to 2022’s $6.28bn. Attendance was also up 18.38% in total tickets sold to 70.1 million, compared to last year’s 59.2 million. 

The top North American tours were Swift, Beyoncé, Morgan Wallen, Drake, P!NK, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Ed Sheeran, George Strait, Karol G and RBD. 

This year, the top 100 North American tours raked in a record $6.63bn, compared to 2022’s $4.77bn. 

“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,” said 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.”