First music tour to gross $1 billion

Taylor Swift’s (USA) The Eras Tour (2023–24) was the first music tour to earn $1 billion in revenue, making it also the highest-grossing music tour on record. First reported by music-industry publication Pollstar in December 2023, Eras’ first 60 shows (17 March to 12 November 2023) were said to have raked in $1,039,263,762 (£849,855,863) – almost exactly half of the $2,077,618,725 (£1,629,875,269) the 149-date spectacle had amassed when it reached its conclusion in December 2024. By comparison, Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road (2018–23), formerly the highest-grossing music tour, made $939.1 million (£734.5 million) in total from 328 performances.

Pollstar reported that Swift sold more than 4.3 million Eras Tour tickets for her first 60 concerts, with an average gross of $17.3 million (£14.1 million) per show.

She set numerous attendance records on the 2023 North and South American legs of the tour, including a three-day attendance of 217,635 at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on 26–28 May.

Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres World Tour (2022–25) has since become the second music tour to earn $1 billion – more precisely, $1,145,056,215 (£904,986,019) by the end of 2024, with another 50 dates on the schedule – making it the second-highest-grossing tour of all time.