The Math Behind the Impressive Athleticism Taylor Swift Needed to Complete Her Eras Tour

December 8, 2024, marks the day that Taylor Swift ends her record-shattering Eras Tour. It lasted 22 months, spanned over five continents, and earned more money than any tour that had ever come before it, grossing more than $1 billion in its first year alone.

At Outside, we wanted to pay homage to Swift’s Eras achievements through the lens of distance traveled, which, we realized, must also be superlative. And to be clear, we aren’t referencing the controversies surrounding her private jet. We wanted to know: How much ground did Swift—herself—cover over the course of her 149 performances?

To get an answer, we devised a nifty method to calculate how many steps she might have taken at each of her shows. We reviewed three different concerts from the tour, one from its beginning, middle, and end. Within each of the selected concerts, we watched ten randomly chosen one-minute intervals, and counted the number of steps taken each minute. This allowed us to calculate her average steps per show and to create a rough total of steps across all her performances.

An average Eras Tour concert runs for about 3.5 hours, which is 210 minutes. We based our numbers on that average show length.

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour by the Numbers

Here’s where we landed on Swift’s Eras Tour distance.

Miles Covered

Between dancing and walking across the stage, Swift took somewhere in the neighborhood of 657,090 steps throughout the duration of the Eras Tour. That’s the equivalent of 329 miles walked across the stage.

Races Completed

It also equates to roughly 12.5 regular-length marathons, 6.5 50-mile ultramarathons, and 3.3 100-mile ultras.

Calories Burned

Using the average number of calories burned per mile walked (which is 100), Swift expended something like 32,900 calories—just in steps. That number is to say nothing of the other dancing, squatting, gyrating, and guitar-holding she did onstage, which burned additional calories, too.

Distance Traveled

Let’s put her steps on a map. Looking at the globe, Swift walked a distance longer than the length of Scotland or the state of Massachusetts. She completed the extent of the John Muir Trail, plus an extra 100 miles.

And she did most of it in thigh-high-heeled boots.

Our guess is that Swift is probably more impressed with the fiscal records she shattered during Eras or the meaningful interactions she’s had with her legions of fans. But we’re not going to lie, 6.5 ultramarathons are pretty cool, too.

Ryleigh Nucilli is not a self-described Swiftie, but she’ll admit to listening to “The Man” on repeat. When she’s not calculating musical superstars’ step counts, she’s reading, writing, and consulting for digital brands.