Lyft rides boosted by Taylor Swift, Beyonce, sporting events in 2023
The events helped Lyft post a more than 35% increase in stadium rides in 2023
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Lyft said stadium rides last year got a "lift" from high-demand concerts and sporting events.
The ride-share company said Tuesday that "high-attendance stadium" events like "Eras Tour" shows by Taylor Swift, "Renaissance" performances by Beyoncé, the U.S. Open and NFL games helped the platform’s number of stadium drop-offs post an over 35% year-over-year increase in 2023.
Late last month, Lyft reported the overall Lyft volumes a city experienced when Swift came to town averaged 7.6% larger than normal. Rides dropping off at hotels, restaurants and mass transit also saw surges for the pop star, with hotels seeing the largest average jump, at 27%, of those three categories, according to the company.
Taylor Swift performs onstage during "Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour" at Tokyo Dome on Feb. 7, 2024 in Tokyo. (Christopher Jue/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management ) / Getty Images)
Swift and Beyoncé both kicked off their highly-anticipated world tours in 2023. Swift’s tour produced a gross of $1.04 billion, marking the first instance of a billion-dollar tour, and Beyoncé’s did $579.8 million, Pollstar reported in December.
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Meanwhile, the U.S. Open tennis tournament ran from Aug. 28 to Sept. 10 last year. Most of the NFL’s 272 games in the 2023 regular season also occurred during 2023, along with the tail of the 2022 season’s regular season games and its playoffs.
Lyft
"What we’ve seen over the past three quarters is people are getting out more and connecting with the world around them. They’re commuting, traveling, heading to events, and gathering with family and friends," CFO Erin Brewer said on Tuesday’s earnings call. "Based on what we’re seeing and hearing, our expectation is that these trends will continue, and as a result of the ride-share backdrop, will remain healthy."
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Lyft operated a total of 709 million rides over the course of 2023, including 191 million in the final quarter of the year.
A Lyft decal is seen on a car in the pick-up area at JFK Airport on April 28, 2023 in New York City. Lyft, the ride-hailing app, confirmed that it will be laying off 1,072 employees, which equals roughly 26% of its corporate workforce. The layoffs we (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Competitor Uber has also previously weighed in on Swift and Beyoncé concerts.
"Swifties and the BeyHive have both been getting into ‘Formation’ and it’s been anything but a ‘Cruel Summer’ with @uber along for the ride," Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi posted in August. "With an average of 3,000+ rides per show, we’ve helped hundreds of thousands of fans get ‘Ready For It’ to ‘Run the World.’"
Beyoncé performs onstage during the "RENAISSANCE WORLD TOUR" at SoFi Stadium on Sept. 1, 2023 in Inglewood, California. (Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Parkwood / Getty Images)
He highlighted the work of one driver in Dallas. That driver transported Swifties to the stadium 40 times, according to Uber’s CEO.
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Khosrowshahi also said Swifties and BeyHive members were four times as generous with tips to their Uber drivers.
The comments from Lyft and Uber come as many Americans opened up their wallets to experience concerts, sports and other live events last year as society continued to return to everyday life post-pandemic.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LYFT | LYFT INC. | 17.17 | -0.19 | -1.09% |
| UBER | UBER TECHNOLOGIES INC. | 73.07 | +1.11 | +1.54% |
Spending in the U.S. on "spectator amusements" like live entertainment, movie theaters and sports hit $98.6 billion in 2023, per the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That included $53.3 billion for live entertainment and $34.7 billion for sports.