The Billion Dollar Behemoth that is Taylor Swift just keeps gobbling up figures on a Brobdingnagian scale. Pollstar, the trade publication for the concert and live music industry, has crunched the numbers for touring grosses over the past year, calculating the final gross for her Eras Tour at $1,039,263,762 in 2023.
Taylor Swift shouldn't be surprised over the numbers, even while onstage in Las Vegas, Nevada, April 24, 2023
The trade also noted that she accomplished this feat in only eight months, in which she played 60 shows coinciding with Pollstar's chart year (Nov. 17, 2022 – Nov. 15, 2023), which included the tour's debut on March 17 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ and ending on Nov. 11 at Estadio Más Monumental in Buenos Aires.
The second place position was taken by Swift's sister in cultural omnipresence, Beyoncé. Her Renaissance Tour clocked in at $579,813,546. In third was Bruce Springsteen's Springsteen and E Street Band 2023 Tour with $379,496,085. (This despite the fact that Springsteen was forced to postpone a string of fall performances while he recovers from a peptic ulcer disease.) Together, those three tours accounted for more than a fifth (21.8%) of the Top 100 Worldwide grosses, coming in at nearly $2 billion.
Beyoncé splashes during a stop on her 'Renaissance Tour' in Miami | Bruce Springsteen rocks onstage in Italy
It's worth pointing out that for the first time in 15 years (when Madonna and Celine topped the worldwide tours chart in 2008) that two women had the year's top grosses. The duo not only smashed the glass ceiling but created a more inclusive "roof" in their dominance.
Pollstar also found that Swift brought in approximately $200 million in merch sales, while her blockbuster theatrical release chronicling the tour, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, has reportedly earned approximately $250 million, making it the highest-grossing concert film of all time.
It wasn't too far back that the industry was asking itself who could replace the boomer stadium rock acts? Judging by this year's figures the answer is pretty much anyone from any genre. Rounding out the top ten worldwide tours, these heavy-hitters include Coldplay, Harry Styles, Morgan Wallen, Ed Sheeran, P!NK, The Weeknd and Drake.
Harry Styles at the premiere of 'Don't Worry Darling' at the Venice International Film Festival, Venice, Italy, September 5, 2022.
What has been a clear indication of a worldwide trend in the live entertainment industry in the last two years was deprivation. While the business saw steady yearly growth following 2008-9's Great Recession, it began pancaking by 2019, before dropping into a pandemic black hole.
And while the show-stopping numbers helped elevate not only amphitheaters, arenas, clubs, stadiums and theaters, as Pollstar grimly reminded, there are still some independent clubs who find themselves struggling. Up against a glut of options in the marketplace, rising costs, limited budgets and staffing shortages, some are still not making ends meet.
Meanwhile, new treks by The Rolling Stones, Green Day, Foo Fighters, Maroon 5, Limp Bizkit, The 1975, IDLES, Carrie Underwood, Dan + Shay, Brett Young, Don Omar, Pepe Aguilar, Laura Pausini, Air, Hozier, Noah Kahan and rescheduled Madonna dates are on the books. While it's uncertain if the industry and the economy can sustain this kind of hectic pace, one thing’s for certain: it's gonna be a crazy ride.
