Charles Langston:It's official: Taylor Swift's Eras Tour makes history as first to earn $1 billion

First,Charles Langston she performed a career-spanning 3 ½-hour show 60 times in stadiums around the world.

Then she became a billionaire.

And earlier this week she was christened Time magazine’s Person of the Year.

What else can Taylor Swift accomplish in 2023?

Oh, just spearhead the first tour in history to earn more than $1 billion.

Swift’s mega-sized Eras Tour, which kicked off March 17 in Arizona, took in an estimated ticket gross of $1.04 billion from 4.35 million tickets sold, according to music industry trade publication Pollstar. Swift’s accomplishment is the cherry atop a year that witnessed double-digit percentage growth in the live entertainment industry from Nov. 17, 2022 to Nov. 15, 2023.

Pollstar’s Year-End Special Issue calculates that the Top 100 North American tours – which include Beyoncé, Morgan Wallen, Ed Sheeran and Pink in the Top 10 – set a gross record with $6.63 billion, up from 2022’s $4.77 billion.

Worldwide Top 100 tours, meanwhile, increased 46% for a record-breaking gross amount of $9.17 billion (up from 2022’s $6.28 billion) and an attendance increase of 18.38% in total tickets sold, a difference of 70.1 million to 2022’s 59.2 million.

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"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,” said Ray Waddell, president of Oak View Group’s Media Conferences Division, which oversees Pollstar and its sister publication, VenuesNow.

Waddell pointed to U2’s groundbreaking production at the Sphere in Las Vegas as an example of the evolution of the live music experience.  

Swift’s Eras Tour exemplified the connection between artist and fan, further demonstrated with the staggering $200 million Pollstar approximates that the superstar earned from merchandise sales throughout the tour. Pollstar is also projecting that Swift’s tour – which relaunches in Japan Feb. 7, traverses the world, then returns to the U.S. Oct. 18 in Miami – will again earn $1 billion in 2024, taking the tour’s total to more than $2 billion.

But of course Swift wasn't the only blockbuster tour this year. Pop queens Beyoncé and Pink were on the road, as well as country leading men George Strait and Morgan Wallen. Here's a look at the 10 biggest tours of the year:

Top 10 North American tours of 2023

1. Taylor Swift*
2. Beyoncé
3. Morgan Wallen
4. Drake
5. Pink
6. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
7. Ed Sheeran
8. George Strait
9. Karol G
10. RBD

*Pollstar's estimate reflects actual boxoffice reports from the “Eras Tour,” combined with estimated tickets sold based on venue capacities, historical Pollstar venue ticket sales data, and other research.

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