Top most expensive tours of 2023: Taylor Swift leads, famous Korean idol loses European and American stars

Never before have music stars’ world tours been mentioned from an economic perspective as much as this year. From Taylor Swift to Beyonce to Harry Styles, these artists have generated hundreds of milliоns of dollars in revenue, contributing to the global economy and tourism through their tours.

In 2023, many artists held tours around the world, and many familiar names created history for themselves or rewrote history for the world thanks to their performances. me.

According to the Pollstar website, in 2023, global concert tours have contributed significantly to artists’ revenue, the economy and the tourism industry of many countries thanks to the huge number of audiences coming to watch the performances. to act. 

Specifically, according to data compiled by Pollstar from November 17, 2022, to November 15, 2023, the world’s top 100 tours by artists in 2023 helped earn a total of 9.17 billiоn USԀ. for the music industry, up 46% over the same period last year.

Of the $9.17 billiоn earned from the world’s top 100 tours this year, about $2.61 billiоn came from tours in the top 5 highest-grossing tours globally.

1. The Eras Tour – Taylor Swift – 1,04B USԀ

The world tour called “The Eras Tour” is the most popular tour of 2023, and also a historic tour in the career of American singer Taylor Swift. 

The Eras Tour is expected to have a total of 146 performances across continents. Each performance includes more than 40 magnificently choreographed songs with experienced dancers and musicians, causing fans to spend hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars to buy tickets. 

In 2023, the 34-year-old female superstar completed the first leg of her World Tour with 56 performances worldwide. Regular tickets for the US leg of Swift’s tour, which begins in March, are priced from $49 – $449, while VIP packages range from $199 – $899.

Forbes said in August that the revenue from the American singer’s shows was 780 million USԀ, while according to Pollstar, the total revenue of The Eras Tour within 12 months (from November 2022 to November 2023) was 1.04 billiоn USԀ, marking the world’s first billiоn-dollar tour.

“Extremely” high revenue from the tour and its great impact on the economy, finance, and tourism, helped female singer Taylor Swift become “Person of the Year” voted by TIME magazine.

The second round of The Eras Tour will restart in November, with dates in Asia and Europe before returning to North America, ending in 2024.

Top most expensive tours of 2023: Taylor Swift leads, famous Korean idol 'loses' European - American stars

2. Renaissance – Beyoncé – 579M USԀ

World tour “Renaissance” of the “Queen of Pop” Beyoncé, with revenue of 579.8 million USԀ, ranked 2nd among the highest-grossing global tours, according to Pollstar. 

It is known that the female artist held 56 performances in 39 cities during her performance period. The 2023 Renaissance World Tour started in Sweden on May 10, then Beyoncé went through 10 European countries before arriving in North America on July 8. The tour continued in the US and Canada in October, where the singer held 13 more shows in 9 cities.

With revenue of nearly 600 million USԀ, Renaissance became the highest-grossing tour of Beyoncé’s career, as well as nearly setting a record for revenue among female artists if it weren’t for “The Eras Tour” by Taylor Swift.

Standard ticket prices for Beyoncé concerts from StubHub start around $102 – $400, depending on the venue. Vivid Seats offers similar prices, ranging from about $100 in Las Vegas to $375 in Houston. However, VIP ticket prices also reach thousands of dollars.

Top most expensive tours of 2023: Taylor Swift leads, famous Korean idol 'loses' European - American stars

3. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band – 379M USԀ

“The Springsteen and E Street Band 2023 Tour” is an ongoing concert tour by American singer Bruce Springsteen and his backing band the E Street Band.

The tour kicks off on February 1, 2023, in Tampa, Florida; marks the first time since 2017 that Springsteen and the E Street Band have toured together, and is scheduled to end on November 22, 2024, in Vancouver.

Pollstar estimates that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s tour earned nearly $379.5 million for the year at nearly $379.5 million for 117 shows.

Top most expensive tours of 2023: Taylor Swift leads, famous Korean idol 'loses' European - American stars

4. Music of the Spheres – Coldplay – 325M USԀ

Coldplay, the British band whose world tour grossed nearly $325.5 million in 2023 thanks to the “Music of the Spheres” tour, performed in 17 different cities with 50 concerts music, Pollstar said. 

For their Music of the Sphere world tour, Coldplay kept the production as sustainable as possible: The stage was built from reusable materials; biodegradable confetti and compostable LED fan giveaway wristbands.

Band members including Chris Martin, Johnny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion visited 10 countries this summer in South America and Europe. After a period of activities in North America, the band will head to Asia and return to Europe in 2024.

Top most expensive tours of 2023: Taylor Swift leads, famous Korean idol 'loses' European - American stars

5. Love On Tour – Harry Styles – 290M USԀ

Harry Styles, who was part of the boy band One Direction, received the 5th spot on Pollstar’s list of top world tours of 2023.

Poll Star said “Love On Tour” generated $290.5 million in revenue by 2023. 

After kicking off 2021 as it quickly became the best-attended tour of the year, Styles’ love fest finally came to an end this past July. The singer spent much of 2023 performing for international audiences, first in Oceania, then Asia, before ending in Europe.

Total revenue of “Love On Tour” was 617 million USԀ, selling more than 5 million tickets for 169 shows.

To date, the male singer has released 3 full albums: “Harry Styles”, Fine Line” and “Harry’s House” – the work won the Album of the Year award at the Grammy.

Top most expensive tours of 2023: Taylor Swift leads, famous Korean idol 'loses' European - American stars“Old Love” by Taylor Swift – Harry Styles is also among the artists with the biggest world tours in 2023.

Besides the tours listed above, many other artists have also held world tours and earned hundreds of milliоns of dollars, such as Ed Sheeran, “legend” Elton John, female singer P!nk, Morgan Wallen,…

The Korean idol series is still weak

Besides the world tours of European and American artists, several tours by Korean artists also created a lot of buzz this year, typically the “Born Pink World Tour” of 4 BlackPink girls. However, in terms of revenue, Korean artists still have to “run a long way” following European and American artists. 

Take for example the “Born Pink World Tour” by BlackPink. This is the second world tour completed by the K-pop group, starting on October 15, 2022 in Seoul (South Korea) and ending on September 17, 2023 in the same city where it starts.

The world tour was a huge commercial success for BlackPink, with a total of 66 performances in 22 countries, the Korean group earned about 265 million USԀ, of which profit alone was 163 million USԀ. .8 million USԀ, according to domestic media reports.

And according to Billboard data, Born Pink World Tour ranked 10th on the Top 40 worldwide tours chart in 2023, breаking the record for the highest-grossing tour by a girl group. 

Top most expensive tours of 2023: Taylor Swift leads, famous Korean idol 'loses' European - American stars

Or like BTS – a globally famous boy band, with the most recent world tour being “Love Yourself” (2018-2019), consisting of 62 shows in 14 countries.

Love Yourself World Tour ranked No. 3 on Billboard’s 2019 global top 40 tour chart with a global gross of $196.4 million from the tour’s final 42 shows .

In total, the tour attracted more than 2,019,800 spectators, making it BTS’s most successful tour to date and the highest-grossing tour by an artist performing primarily in non-language. must be English, reports Billboard.

In 2023, BTS member, and male singer SUGA, held a world tour called “Agust D TOUR D-DAY”, with 26 performances, earning 57 million USԀ.

It can be seen that the total revenue from the tour of Korean artists, despite setting a revenue record in the region, is still quite far away from the revenue of European and American artists.

This can be partly explained by the longstanding popularity of Western music, while Korean music has only emerged in the past decade.

Besides, ticket prices for Korean artists’ performances are also lower than those of Western artists, the most expensive ones only range at a few hundred dollars, not thousands of dollars like Taylor Swift or Beyoncé