Today (November 18) was supposed to be the day the general sale for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour occurred. But not anymore: Ticketmaster announced yesterday the general sale has been canceled due to high demand for tickets.
Tickets went on sale on Tuesday, November 15, through Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program. The program requires potential concertgoers to sign up ahead of time and rank their preferred cities and dates for attendance. The idea is to cut down on the bots who historically swoop in for tickets before actual fans can buy them.
A heartbreaking presale rush for tickets frustrated many fans. Those seeking tickets were subjected to hourslong waits and a website that sometimes crashed, sending them back to the beginning of a virtual queue with thousands ahead of them.
Ticketmaster has stated over 3.5 million people registered as Verified Fans, and over 2 million tickets were sold on Tuesday alone — the most tickets sold for any solo artist on a single day. Those tickets were gone before a second pre-sale window opened for Capital One cardholders. Accordingly, the Ticketmaster website was flooded with traffic, getting 3.5 billion total system requests — four times the site’s previous high. As a result, users experienced technical difficulties and long wait times for the chance to buy tickets. The issues were exacerbated apparently due to a “staggering number of bot attacks as well as fans who didn’t have invite codes.”
Ticketmaster finally announced: “Due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand, tomorrow’s public on-sale for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour has been cancelled.” It’s currently unclear if tickets to the Eras Tour remain, or if Ticketmaster will reschedule its public on-sale date.
Due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand, tomorrow's public on-sale for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour has been cancelled.
— Ticketmaster (@Ticketmaster) November 17, 2022
According to NBC News, Ticketmaster said in a full statement that the presale broke site records. It acknowledged that it hadn't offered the smooth ticket-buying experience it hoped for. "The biggest venues and artists turn to us because we have the leading ticketing technology in the world — that doesn’t mean it’s perfect, and clearly for Taylor’s on sale it wasn’t. But we’re always working to improve the ticket buying experience," the statement said.
Ticketmaster also explained that "based on the volume of traffic to our site, Taylor would need to perform over 900 stadium shows (almost 20x the number of shows she is doing)...that’s a stadium show every single night for the next 2.5 years."
Swift recently added 17 dates to the U.S. tour, which kicks off in March in Arizona and ends in August in Los Angeles. The tour will consist of 52 concerts. Opening acts include Paramore, Phoebe Bridgers, Gayle, girl in red, MUNA, HAIM, Gracie Abrams, beabadoobee and OWENN.
See Taylor Swift's most recent tour poster below.
UM. Looks like I’ll get to see more of your beautiful faces than previously expected… we’re adding 8 shows to the tour 😆https://t.co/KFuqvr0hhO pic.twitter.com/4LTYSnwKJO
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) November 4, 2022
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Article Image: Taylor Swift poses in a mirrorball-like dress at the 2018 American Music Awards. (Featureflash via DepositPhotos.)
