In the two football seasons since she began dating Kansas City Chiefs' tight end Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift has brought over $1 billion in publicity and revenue to the NFL, according to a report released by MarketWatch earlier this month.
The pop star confirmed her relationship with Kelce in September 2023 and has regularly attended games since.
The report, which pulled data from advertising company Apex Marketing, states that between her first appearance at a Chiefs game Sept. 24, 2023 and that season's AFC Championship contest Jan. 28, 2024, Swift generated $366,753,290 for the NFL across all equivalent brand value. That figure is measured across social media, TV, radio, digital news and print news.
In the league's most recent season, her appearances drew an estimated $634,304,163 from equivalent brand value through the AFC Championship game.
Much of that revenue comes from social media and digital news, Apex's Eric Smallwood told MarketValue.
“The ‘Swift Effect’ and the corresponding media exposure continued for the NFL and the Chiefs prior to the start of the 2024 NFL season. … The media blitz continued as the Chiefs kept winning games and were featured on national broadcasts, leading into the playoffs and now the Super Bowl,” he said. “Taylor was visible at games, and those appearances garnered media attention from sports-media outlets and those entertainment media outlets not normally covering the NFL.”
Swift's impact has been particularly strong among one specific demographic: young, female audiences.
In October 2023, NBC announced that during a Sunday Night Football matchup between the Chiefs and the New York Jets, viewership among girls aged 12-17 jumped 53% from the average of the first three weeks of SNF that season. In the same time frame, viewership among women aged 18-24 was up 24%, and women aged 35+ spiked 34%. Those increases amounted to 2 million viewers, NBC said.
Later that season, a record 123.7 million U.S. viewers tuned into the 2023 Super Bowl between the Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, boosted in part by the 25% jump in viewership among 18- to 24-year-old women, according to Sportico.
And according to the sports business outlet, the singer's presence has had a profound effect on Kelce's popularity, too.
In September 2024, the outlet reported a 400% increase in Kelce's jersey sales in the days following Swift's first appearance at a Chiefs game. MarketValue added that Kelce's Instagram following doubled during the Chiefs’ 2024 playoff run, increasing from 2.7 million to 5.39 million. It now sits at 6.7 million.
This isn't the first time Swift influenced the businesses around her.
According to the U.S. Travel Association, Swift's Eras Tour — the highest-grossing tour of all time, according to CNN — boosted local economies and tourism still reeling from the pandemic across the country.
Fans who attended the tour, which lasted from March 2023 to December 2024, spent an average of $1,300 on travel, lodging, food and merchandise.
Following Swift's six-night stay in Los Angeles, the California Center for Jobs and the Economy reported an estimated $320 million bump to gross domestic product in Los Angeles County. The organization also predicted an increase of 3,300 local workers and $160 million in local earnings due to the shows.
