Is Taylor Swift's Eras Tour the biggest in history? Concerts spanning more than a year likely to gross a billion dollars
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Music superstar Taylor Swift is currently on her ‘The Eras Tour.’ The tour, consisting of 146 dates till now, spans over five continents and is slated to take place for more than a year. The ‘Lover’ songstress announced the tour on November 1, 2022, through her social media handle and 'Good Morning America' show. ‘The Eras Tour’ is Swift’s second all-stadium tour after her Reputation tour of 2018.
The musical tour, which the ‘Anti-Hero’ singer described as "a journey through the musical eras of my career", commenced on March 17, 2023, in Glendale, Arizona. Spanning over a year and a half, the last show is scheduled on November 23, 2024, in Toronto, Canada. Each concert spans over three hours comprising 44 songs divided into 10 distinct sections. While the ‘Eras Tour’ is the most expansive tour of Swift, many fans have rightly wondered whether this is the biggest ever tour in history.
Is Taylor Swift's Eras tour the biggest in history?
While Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ has been doing enormous business and receiving critical acclaim simultaneously, it still has some ways to go before becoming the biggest tour in history. Adjusting for inflation, the first three spots are held by Sir Elton John, Ed Sheeran and U2.
Sir Elton John’s ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’, which spanned from 2018 to 2023, garnered $939,100,000 in gross. The tour with 330 concerts was attended by 6,000,000 people with the average attendance being 18,182. Sir John is said to have grossed $2.85 million per show, making the average gross per attendee to be $156.52, per Billboard.
The ‘Shape Of You’ singer Ed Sheeran comes second with his ‘÷ Tour’ of 2017-19. When the tour happened, the actual gross income of the tour was considered to be $776,200,000 which after inflation adjustment has become $888,442,379. The 255-show concert tour was attended by a whopping 8,796,567 fans, making the gross per show to be estimated around $3.04 million. On average, 34,496 people attended each day and every single attendee contributed around $88.24 on average, per Pollstar and Billboard.
The Irish rock band from Dublin comes third on the list with ‘U2 360° Tour’ accumulating a massive $736,421,584 gross in 2009-2011. Adjusting the inflation, the gross stands at $958,001,688. The tour consisted of 110 shows and was attended by a total of 7,272,046. Averaging 66,110 attendees per concert, the group grossed around $6.69 million per show. Each attendee contributed about $101.27 per show.
Where does Eras Tour stand in comparison?
The final figures for the Eras Tour are not yet out as it is still ongoing. But it has the potential to become the highest-grossing tour for any artist. On presale day, the tour sold 2.4 million tickets, breaking the record of Robbie Williams’ 1.6 million tickets. While The Wall Street Journal said that the tour is "on track to become the biggest in concert history, with the potential to gross over $1 billion,” Pollstar estimated a gross of $1.4 billion. Per Bloomberg News, the average gross per concert in the US is $13.3 million.