Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour may have come to an end last night in Vancouver, but thousands of fans—and casual observers—will remember it all too well for years to come.
Plenty has already been said about the global implications of Swift’s hugely popular tour, which began in March 2023. But now that the concert era has come to a close, we can use an official number to describe the phenomenon: According to The New York Times, Swift’s production company confirmed that the tour grossed a record-breaking $2,077,618,725 in ticket sales. That’s twice the second-highest-grossing concert tour of all time—Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres World Tour—which just surpassed the $1 billion mark in August.
The new milestone represents the outsized economic impact of the Eras Tour, which had ripple effects well outside of the arenas Swift visited in the U.S., Latin America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. To commemorate its finale, here are just a few of the ways the Eras Tour made financial waves.
The birth of Swiftonomics
When Swift’s tour first began in the U.S. in 2023, many cities were still reeling from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The large influx of Swifties to host cities during this period was regularly credited for helping to revive their tourism economies, especially considering that most fans spent over $1,000 on expenses like hotel stays, food, and merch.
In July 2023, Chicago mayor J.B. Pritzker credited Swift for a new hotel revenue record. And in October of that year, Swift’s two-night stop in Kansas City, Missouri, was estimated to generate close to $50 million for the local economy. Swift’s money-making prowess became such common knowledge during this period that it was given its own term: Swiftonomics (though, to be fair, some experts have argued that Swiftonomics are actually negligible, given their temporary nature).
Taylor Swift’s Eras go from stage to screen
Last October, while she was still mid-tour, Swift took her act from the stage to the screen with Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, a concert film distributed by AMC. At the box office, the film earned more than $261 million globally, making it the top-grossing concert film of all time. Disney later agreed to pay over $75 million to host the movie on its streaming platform Disney+.
Football’s Swift-ified Renaissance
News of Swift’s relationship with the Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce has been virtually unavoidable since the two became an official pair in September 2023. For the NFL, that constant media attention has proven to be a real asset. In October 2023, the league said in a statement that it was “leaning into” the Swift-Kelce “pop-cultural moment” to help draw a new audience of fans to the sport. According to a study released this September, 17% of Americans reported greater interest in football this season thanks to Swift—and 14% said they’ll spend more on football because of her.
How Taylor Swift saved Target’s Christmas
One of Swift’s most recent feats has been to draw Black Friday shoppers off of their computers and into Target stores in-person to score new vinyl and CD versions of her latest album, as well as The Eras Tour Book. According to Placer.ai, foot traffic in Target on Black Friday was up 16.8% this year compared to 2023, a shift that analysts say is largely attributable to Swift’s exclusive merch line with the chain.
Over the past two years, Swift has transcended superstar status to become an economic touchpoint for everything from Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign to America’s favorite sport—and while her massive tour may have come to a close, her cultural influence is undoubtedly here to stay.