Taylor Swift vs. The Beatles: who's bigger?

When Taylor Swift's "The Eras Tour" arrived in Edinburgh last weekend, fans went so wild that seismological equipment picked up tremors almost four miles away.

The British Geological Survey estimated that the audience reaction at Murrayfield Stadium had an effect similar to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake, said the BBC. It is an eye-catching new metric of success for the global megastar, who has already broken record after record for sales and streams.

The 152-date tour is likely to generate more than $2 billion (£1.56 billion) by the time it wraps up in December, said the BBC, making it the highest-grossing tour of all time. "The only thing I can compare it to is the phenomenon of Beatlemania," said musical icon Billy Joel, who attended the show in Florida last year. 

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With Swift's tour reaching Liverpool tonight – the home town of The Beatles – more references to the Fab Four look inevitable. A like-for-like comparison of their respective popularity is "impossible", said The New York Times, not least because the metrics for calculating success have "changed drastically" over the decades. 

Indeed, there are "multiple caveats" for any attempt to assess how Swiftmania compares to Beatlemania, said Sky News: inflation, population growth, the rise of streaming, social media, live music becoming "more lucrative", and so on. Unlike the seismological readings, there is "no exact science here". 

Taylor vs. The Beatles: hit singles

By the time the Fab Four broke up in 1970, the band had released 64 songs that made it on to Billboard's US Hot 100 chart, racking up 20 number ones in total – more than any other artist in the chart's history.

Swift can claim only 12 number ones in the US so far, putting her behind Mariah Carey (19), Rihanna (14), Michael Jackson and Drake (13), and on par with Madonna and The Supremes. 

And before 1998, the Billboard Hot 100 only tracked the popularity of "singles": songs released for sale individually. Now, the chart can include any song played on the radio, as well as digital downloads and streams, including album tracks. So "by today's rules, The Beatles would have even more hits," said The New York Times.

However, after the release of her album "Midnights" in 2022, Swift became the first artist in history to occupy all US Top 10 spots at once – a success she repeated with "The Tortured Poets Department" last month. This suggests "a different kind of fervour than the musical ubiquity of The Beatles," said The New York Times. It shows a "depth of obsession" among Swifties, who stream her music "billions of times". 

Winner: The Beatles (for now) 

Taylor vs. The Beatles: album sales

A tricky comparison, because a set amount of song streams or downloads is now considered the equivalent of one album sold. Not all sales are certified, and most metrics are still unsure what to do with Swift's "Taylor's Version" re-releases of her back catalogue. 

But record label EMI estimates that, including sales of compilations and live albums, The Beatles can claim album sales of more than a billion units worldwide: the most of any act in history.

Looking just at certified UK and US sales of regular album releases, Swift is "way ahead" in the US, said Sky News, while The Beatles "take the win" in the UK. Interestingly, both add up to just under 295 million.

Winner: The Beatles (UK); Taylor Swift (US)

Taylor Swift vs. The Beatles: touring success

After their proto-viral appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964, The Beatles went on to enjoy their highest-grossing tour in the US. Their show at Shea Stadium in New York City in August 1965 set a world record for attendance and grossed $304,000 – just under $3 million today.

But at the end of last year, Swift's "The Eras Tour" became the first in history to gross more than $1 billion. "More impressively, that total did not yet include the sales of the Eras Tour film," said economist Tommy Soesmanto on The Conversation – or the approximately $200 million spent on merchandise. The "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" film reportedly earned nearly $270 million, making it the highest-grossing concert tour film ever. 

As well as making the earth move, Swift's concerts noticeably boost host countries' GDP. Economists struggling to capture the staggering financial impact have coined a catch-all term: "Swiftonomics".

Winner: Taylor Swift, by a country mile