A Retrospective: Comparing The “Eras Tour” to Taylor Swift’s Past Tours

10/09/2024

Taylor Swift entered the music industry in 2003 and took over major media outlets after the release of her first career album, “Taylor Swift” released in 2006 – 3 years later. Even though it was her first major record in the music industry, it carried enough evidence for the world to know that she would be the next big thing.

It has been 21 years since her emergence in the industry, and her trail is covered with numerous achievements that some can only dream of – including being a billionaire at 34, all thanks to her current tour, the “Eras Tour,” which she started in 2023.

With Taylor Swift, we got to understand the importance of believing in your dreams, even when not everyone sees them. Remember that at some point in time, she had to fight for rights over her records. It led to her deciding to re-record most of her albums since she came into the industry. And today, that move alone is what we owe most of the setlist of the “Eras Tour” to.

As Swifties, we’re glad that Taylor Swift carried us along through her journey to fame. This ensured that we witnessed her evolution, even though it wasn’t easy. Thanks to her relentless spirit, we can look back to where she came from, and be glad she kept going regardless of what it took.

Today we have 5 tours to remember Taylor Swift by, and we’ll be comparing her currently ongoing tour, the “Eras Tour,” which is her 6^th, with her previously headlined tours, to take note of some of the significant changes that happened in her career.

With that said, don’t forget that we still have some months to go before she rounds up the tour this year. So, you can easily get Taylor Swift tickets through Seatsnet, a ticket marketplace built to ease the process for you, while we compare the “Eras Tour” and other Taylor Swift tours.

Comparing The “Eras Tour” to Taylor Swift’s Past Tours

The “Eras Tour” is only the 6^th career tour by Taylor Swift since she came into the music industry. Even though she has up to 11 albums including 4 re-recorded versions, and the recently released, “The Tortured Poets Department,” she seemed to have taken it slow with headlining tours, in support of her studio albums. Perhaps this explains why the “Eras Tour” is called that, with Eras made up of all her released albums.

Before we go deep into the comparison, comparing the “Eras Tour” with other tours headlined by the singer only proved more facts on how much Taylor Swift has evolved, while mastering her craft. But regardless, for the sake of the history books, here’s the comparison.

Ticket Sales

The 6 years Taylor Swift stayed in the music industry before headlining her first tour, the “Fearless Tour” in 2009 was to ensure she had the right fan base to entertain when she set out to tour. It worked for her, as we recorded nothing less than 1 million tickets sold in all her tours, including the “Eras Tour.”

Number Of Tickets Sold For Each Tour:

Fearless Tour – 1,430,278
Speak Now World Tour – 1,642,435
The Red Tour – 1.700,000
The 1989 World Tour – 2.280,000
Reputation Tour – 2,888,922
The Eras Tour – 4.300,000

From the list above, we see how many tickets for the “Eras Tour” have been sold already, and we still have more dates to go. Ticketmaster described the demand for the “Eras Tour” tickets as ‘unprecedented’ tagging it as one of the bestselling of any artist they’ve seen.

Even with the clear difference, there’s one thing all these tours have in common, and that is the fact that most of them sold out in minutes when pre-sales began to Swifties in different cities. Also worth taking note is the fact that all sold above 1.4 million tickets, and the numbers kept ascending with each tour that followed.

Attendance

We believe that attendance and ticket sales work hand in hand, but considering the possibility of bots buying tickets as well, we decided to have a section where we compare the attendance recorded in all the tours that Taylor Swift has headlined since the beginning of her career.

Attendance In Individual Tours:

Fearless Tour – 1,400,000+
Speak Now World Tour – 1,600,000+
The Red Tour – 1,700,000+
The 1989 World Tour – 2,200,000+
Reputation Tour – 2,800,000+
The Eras Tour – 4,300,000+

When it comes to the attendance of individual tours that Taylor Swift has headlined, the “Eras Tour” surpassed all, not just because of the number of tickets sold, but because she broke a lot of attendance records in many stadiums, including places she had visited before during her previous tours.

As of the time of writing this article, the recorded attendance in the “Eras Tour” is more than 4 million people, and this number is expected to increase before the conclusion of the tour this December.

Number Of Shows

The number of shows in each tour Taylor Swift has headlined also increased with the “Eras Tour.” She started big with the “Fearless Tour,” and then went low through to the “Reputation Tour,” before picking momentum again with the “Eras Tour.”

Number of Shows In Individual Tours:

Fearless Tour – 118 Shows
Speak Now World Tour – 110 Shows
The Red Tour – 86 Shows
The 1989 World Tour – 85 Shows
Reputation Tour – 53 Shows
The Eras Tour – 149 Shows

This list shows something other than just the number of shows Taylor Swift has scheduled in all of her tours, including the “Eras Tour.” We see that even though she sort of reduced the number of shows in each tour, as she progressed in the music industry, the number of tickets sold only increased. This means that the quality of her music increased, so also the value of her live appearances. This explains why we have a recorded 2.8 million tickets sold for the “Reputation Tour,” which had only 53 shows in its schedule.

Setlist

Taylor Swift has constantly evolved her craft, and it has helped her remain relevant in the industry. In this section of the article, we’ll review how Taylor Swift’s setlist has evolved as well over the past years.

Number Of Songs On The Setlist Of Individual Tours:

Fearless Tour – 17 (Including 2 Encores) – Associated Album – “Fearless”
Speak Now World Tour – 13 (Asia and Europe) 18 (Including 2 Encores, for North America) – Associated Album – “Speak Now”
The Red Tour – 17 (Including 1 Encore) – Associated Album – “Red”
The 1989 World Tour – 18 (Including 1 Encore) – Associated Album – “1989”
Reputation Tour – 19 – Associated Albums – “Reputation”
The Eras Tour – 44 – Associated Albums – All Of Taylor Swift’s Albums

We can see that the setlist of all tours, except the “Eras Tour” was made up of a single album, which is the album the tour is in support of. Only the setlist of the “Eras Tour” was made up of all Taylor Swift albums, making the setlist a 44-song list, excluding surprise songs.

Revenue

We’re finally at the most important section of the tour, where we compare the revenue incurred in all these tours headlined by Taylor Swift through her 21 years of being active in the music industry. As usual, the list below.

Revenue Incurred From All Tours:

Fearless Tour – $ 79 Million
Speak Now World Tour – $164 Million
The Red Tour – $193 Million
The 1989 World Tour – $322 Million
Reputation Tour – $419 Million
The Eras Tour – $1 Billion

The “Eras Tour” is not even over yet, but it has already incurred more than $1 billion in revenue for Taylor Swift – placing her on the list of billionaires who made their money through music only.

This comparison shows that the fame, money and influence one is looking for will eventually come as long as one doesn’t relent or give up on the fact that it is overwhelming.