If you know someone who is a Taylor Swift fan, be gentle with them. Chances are they tried (and failed) to get Taylor Swift tickets. On November 1, Taylor Swift announced her next tour: The Eras Tour. The tour was meant to be a journey through her musical career, from her first album to her most recent. The openers vary for each show, but she has invited Paramore, beabadoobee, Phoebe Bridgers, girl in red, GAYLE, MUNA, HAIM, Gracie Abrams, and OWENN.
Fans were able to register for a presale code through Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan so that they would get access to tickets two days before the general sale. The Verified Fan is made to ensure that real fans get tickets, and not bots. After hours of waiting in the virtual cue, fans finally got confirmation that they had a chance. Even if fans pre-registered for a presale code, the codes were given out by chance, not everyone was given one. According to Ticketmaster, “Over 3.5 million people pre-registered for TaylorSwiftTix Presale powered by Verified Fan, which is the largest registration in history.”
The day before the presale, fans were notified if they received a presale code. I was one of the lucky ones who received a code. 1.5 million people were sent a presale code, but 2 million fans did not receive a presale code and instead were placed on a waitlist.
The day of the sale was truly crazy. I logged into Ticketmaster 30 minutes before the presale was scheduled to begin at 10AM. At exactly 10, the entire app crashed. According to Ticketmaster, there were 3.5 BILLION (!!) system requests, which was 4 times their maximum capacity. 14 million people tried to get tickets. Afterward, it was calculated that fans only had a 2% chance of obtaining tickets. Fans waited for hours in a virtual queue line before getting to buy tickets. 15% of fans experienced errors, causing hatred towards Ticketmaster. Just a lesson, never mess with Taylor Swift fans.
Overall, 2.4 million tickets were sold during presale. Ticketmaster was forced to cancel their general sale due to the fact that there were no more tickets left. Fans who didn’t get a presale code now have to pay extraneous prices for a ticket. After waiting in the line for about an hour and a half, I was lucky enough to get 3 tickets in section 205 for the second Levi Stadium show. They were $169 each, much cheaper than I thought they would be. Resellers are now selling tickets in that section for $1,200.