Taylor Swift is on the most lucrative world tour in history: banking US$13 million a night, The Eras Tours looks set to topple Elton John, Ed Sheeran, U2 and Guns N’ Roses’ highest-grossing records

Jul 9 , 2023

Laughing her way to the bank? Taylor Swift performs onstage on the fifth night of her Eras Tour, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on March 31. The tour makes a reported US$13 million. Photo: AFP

Taylor Swift is bringing in ticket sales of more than US$13 million a night on the road – putting her on a trajectory to deliver the highest-grossing tour in music history.

And that sum does not include the additional millions dollars in merchandise sales that the Eras tour is generating. But it still makes Swift, 33, the top-grossing artist in the world and marks the biggest tour of her career.

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Taylor Swift performs on the opening night of the soon-to-be record-breaking Eras Tour, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Photo: Getty Images/TNS

Four months in, Swift is on pace to gross more than US$1 billion, a threshold no artist has ever hit. Through 22 dates, the tour has grossed US$300 million, according to Pollstar, an industry publication. She was expected to perform more than 50 dates in the US in all and then go abroad. Pollstar estimates Eras could top US$1.3 billion.

That’s light years ahead of the current top-grossing tour – with Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour expected to total US$887 million) when it wraps in Sweden on July 8. The closest other competitors are Ed Sheeran (US776 million), the norotiously wealthy U2 (US$736 million) and recent Glastonbury headliners Guns N’ Roses (US$584,000).

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Fans are paying more than US$250 to see Taylor Swift live. Photo: @taylorswift/Instagram

Swift is also setting a high-water mark for prices – in a year marked by concert inflation. The average ticket to a Swift costs US$254. Seven of the 25 bestselling acts of the first half of the year are also charging more than US$200 a night – a list which includes Bruce Springsteen at US$224, Phish at US$206 and country star George Strait at US$282.

Just five years ago, the only two acts that topped US$200 were Britney Spears and Celine Dion. That year’s biggest performer, Ed Sheeran, could be seen for an average of US$89 a night.

Taylor Swift’s set times are averaging around more than three hours on The Eras Tour. Photo: @taylorswift/Instagram

Since then, the average price of the 25 bestselling tours has jumped by US$37, and adjusted for inflation, ticket prices are rising faster than consumer prices generally.

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You can see what’s happened if you group it into tiers.

Before 2018, in the US almost every ticket cost between US$75 and US$130, though a couple of acts charged at the higher end. Now, there are more loosely defined A-list acts charging upwards of US$200 than there are top performers charging less than US$100.

The Eras Tour is Taylor Swift’s fifth major concert tour. Photo: @taylorswift/Instagram

Coincidentally, 2018 happens to be the last time Swift was on tour – when a ticket to see the Reputation Tour cost “just” US$119.4.

So there you have it – the cost of seeing Taylor Swift has increased by US$134. That has not stopped more than 1.1 million people from buying tickets.

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Fame and celebrity

The career-spanning Eras Tour – which finally reaches Tokyo and Singapore in February – is on track to be the first music tour to earn more than a billion dollars
After just 22 dates the outing has already grossed US$300 million – the equivalent of US$13 million per night – as US fans pay US$254 for their chance to see Tay Tay’s first tour in five years