Taylor Swift's Eras Tour came to a close Sunday night, capping off nearly two years of sparkly outfits, friendship bracelets and record-breaking sales.
The tour, an autobiographical journey through Swift's extensive discography, started in Arizona in March 2023. Over the next 630-plus days, Swift performed 149 shows — each more than three hours long — in over 50 cities across five continents.
The show's 10 acts span the distinct eras of Swift's career, each defined with its own color scheme, costume and stage design, plus two ever-changing "surprise songs" during the acoustic portion of the night.
A steady stream of surprises, setlist changes and special guests held fans' attention for the duration of the tour, with many tuning into livestreams and following dedicated fan accounts on social media.
And, of course, people watched in person.
Much has been written about "Swiftonomics," or how the tour boosted local economies across the U.S. and around the world. Fans traveled hundreds or even thousands of miles, sometimes for more than one show, spending money on lodging, food and costumes along the way.
Their enthusiasm made history.
The tour set attendance records at scores of iconic stadiums, from Pittsburgh to São Paulo. Swift also set records for the most shows by a female artist at multiple venues, from Chicago to Mexico City to Lisbon to London — where she headlined a record eight shows at Wembley Stadium.
Eras set an all-time record when it grossed $1 billion last December — the first tour to ever cross the 10-digit threshold — according to the concert trade publication Pollstar. And that was with one year still to go.
This week, after her final shows in Vancouver, the singer's production company confirmed the tour's total ticket sales for the first time, telling the New York Times that it had brought in a whopping more than $2 billion.
That's not including the secondary market of ticket sellers (remember when a botched Ticketmaster rollout prompted a Senate hearing and class-action lawsuit against the company?).
And it doesn't account for other profits from the tour, including sales from merchandise ($200 million in 2023 alone) and tickets to Swift's concert film, which became the highest-grossing concert film of all time (more than $261.6 million globally) after its October 2023 release. Swift also released a $40 coffee-table book with pictures and reflections from the tour in late November, which sold nearly 1 million copies in its first week.
On her final night onstage in Vancouver on Sunday, Swift described the tour as "the most thrilling chapter of my entire life to date" and credited her fans. Swifties started their own special set of Eras Tour traditions, like trading homemade friendship bracelets in the crowd and chanting and clapping at specific cues with archer-like precision.
"Making friends and bringing joy to each other, that is I think the lasting legacy of this tour, is the fact that you have created such a space of joy and togetherness and love. You're why this is so special," Swift said. "And you supporting me for as long as you have is why I get to take these lovely walks down memory every single night because you cared about every era of my entire life that I've been making music, so thank you."
The Eras Tour by the numbers:
- Swift performed 149 shows between March 2023 and December 2024.
- The tour traveled to 51 cities across 21 countries.
- A typical Eras show featured 44-46 songs and ran for 3 hours and 15 minutes.
- Swift spent a total of roughly 25 hours performing her 10-minute version of "All Too Well."
- A total of 10,168,008 people purchased $2,077,618,725 in tickets — averaging about $204 per seat, Swift's company told the NYT.
- Eighteen opening acts warmed up the crowd for Swift, including Sabrina Carpenter, Paramore and Phoebe Bridgers. Fifteen special guests, mostly musicians, joined her onstage in occasional surprise appearances.
- Swift wore more than 60 outfits throughout the tour and more than 250 custom pairs of shoes by designer Christian Louboutin.
- Swift's biggest crowd (of both the tour and her entire career) was 96,000 people at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia in February.
- In July 2023, Seattle fans danced so hard that they created the seismic equivalent of a 2.3 magnitude earthquake.
Meanwhile, during the tour:
- Swift was Spotify's most-streamed artist for two years in a row, driving 26.6 billion global streams in 2024 alone.
- Time magazine named Swift its 2023 Person of the Year.
- Swift released three albums while on tour: She re-recorded "Taylor's Version" of Speak Now and 1989 in 2023, and released The Tortured Poets Department in April 2024 (which also yielded four music videos).
- That's in addition to her concert film, book and vinyl.
- Swift canceled her Vienna concerts after a terrorist plot to attack them was foiled, and postponed her second Brazil show due to heat after a fan died during the first one.
- Swift endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, driving more than 400,000 visitors to a voting registration website and prompting blowback from President-elect Donald Trump.
- The U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust suit against Live Nation Entertainment and its subsidiary, Ticketmaster, alleging it created a monopoly on live ticket event prices — a step that satisfied many disappointed Swifties.
- Swift stopped dating actor Joe Alwyn and started dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (and attending his games, where she made "seemingly ranch" an overnight sensation). Swift somehow made it to Las Vegas from Tokyo overnight to see — and be seen — when the Chiefs won the 2023 Superbowl.
- Their very public relationship has won delighted fans, driven up female NFL viewership and stadium ticket prices and even inspired a Hallmark holiday movie.
What's next?
- Some possible downtime for Swift, who will turn 35 on Dec. 13.
- Fans eagerly await her last two re-recorded albums: her self-titled 2006 debut, and 2017's Reputation.
- The singer was nominated for six Grammys, including album, song and record of the year. The awards show is scheduled for Feb. 2.
Copyright 2024 NPR