Ticketmaster cancels public sale of Taylor Swift tour tickets
ByTheresa Seiger, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
ByTheresa Seiger, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Officials with Ticketmaster announced in a statement Thursday that they were cancelling the public sale of tickets for Taylor Swift’s upcoming “The Eras Tour” after unprecedented demand for presale tickets caused the company’s website to crash Tuesday.
In a statement obtained by CNN, Ticketmaster officials said that “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.”
More than 2 million tickets were sold for Swift shows on Tuesday — the most ever sold for an artist on a single day, according to Ticketmaster.
The tickets were sold through the company’s Verified Fan program, in which people can register to purchase presale tickets. The program is aimed at weeding out bots and ensuring that tickets go to real people.
Ticketmaster officials said that more than 3.5 million people preregistered to buy tickets through Swift’s Verified Fan. A majority of those — 2 million people — were put on a waiting list based on projected sale estimates that took into account previous sale numbers.
“Historically, working with Verified Fan invite codes has worked as we’ve been able to manage the volume coming into the site to shop for tickets,” Ticketmaster officials said Thursday in a statement. “However, this time the staggering number of bot attacks as well as fans who didn’t have invite codes drove unprecedented traffic on our site, resulting in 3.5 billion total system requests – 4x our previous peak.”
Officials said they had never before seen so much attention for a Verified Fan sale. The company estimated that “about 15% of interactions across the site experienced issues ... including passcode validation errors that caused fans to lose tickets they had carted.”
Beginning in March, Swift is scheduled to perform 54 shows as part of U.S. leg of “The Eras Tour.” The final show is scheduled to take place at Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles on Aug. 9.
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Photos: Taylor Swift through the years Here are some memorable photos of Taylor Swift through the years. (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for MTV)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2006: Country singer Taylor Swift arrives at the 41st annual Academy of Country Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 23, 2006, in Las Vegas. (Michael Buckner/Getty Images)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2007: Music artist Taylor Swift performs during the Academy of Country Music New Artists' Party for a Cause show at the MGM Grand Conference Center on May 14, 2007, in Las Vegas. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2008: Singer Taylor Swift arrives at the 50th annual Grammy Awards held at the Staples Center on February 10, 2008, in Los Angeles. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2009: Kanye West (left) jumps onstage after Taylor Swift (center) won the "Best Female Video" award during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall on September 13, 2009, in New York City. (Christopher Polk/Getty Images)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2010: Musicians Kary Perry and Taylor Swift during the 52nd annual Grammy Awards Salute to Icons Honoring Doug Morris held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 30, 2010, in Beverly Hills, California. (Larry Busacca/Getty Images for NARAS)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2011: Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez perform onstage during the "Speak Now World Tour" at Madison Square Garden on November 22, 2011, in New York City. (Larry Busacca/Getty Images)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2012: Taylor Swift performs onstage during the MTV EMA's 2012 at Festhalle Frankfurt on November 11, 2012, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. (Andreas Rentz/Getty Images for MTV)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2013: Taylor Swift arrives at the 55th annual Grammy Awards on February 10, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Christopher Polk/Getty Images for NARAS)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2014: Musician Taylor Swift attends the "Charles James: Beyond Fashion" Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2014, in New York City. (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2015: Taylor Swift, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian attend the 57th annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center on February 8, 2015, in Los Angeles. (Larry Busacca/Getty Images for NARAS)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2016: Recording artist Taylor Swift attends the 2016 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Graydon Carter at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 28, 2016, in Beverly Hills, California. (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2017: Musician Taylor Swift performs onstage during the Super Saturday Night Concert at Club Nomadic on February 4, 2017, in Houston. (Larry Busacca/Getty Images for DIRECTV)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2018: Taylor Swift attends the 2018 American Music Awards at Microsoft Theater on October 9, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2019: Taylor Swift performs during the TIME 100 Gala 2019 Dinner at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 23, 2019, in New York City. (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for TIME)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2020: Taylor Swift attends the 2020 Sundance Film Festival "Miss Americana" Premiere at Eccles Center Theatre on January 23, 2020, in Park City, Utah. (Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2021: Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, and Aaron Dessner accept the Album of the Year award for "Folklore" onstage during the 63rd annual Grammy Awards at the Los Angeles Convention Center on March 14, 2021, in Los Angeles. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2021: Taylor Swift attends the "All Too Well" New York Premiere on November 12, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images) (DIMITRIOS.KAMBOURIS@GETTYIMAGES.COM/Getty Images)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2021: Writer-director Taylor Swift attends a premiere for the short film "All Too Well" at AMC Lincoln Square 13 on Friday, Nov. 12, 2021, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP) (Evan Agostini/Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2022: Taylor Swift speaks during a graduation ceremony for New York University at Yankee Stadium in New York, Wednesday, May 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) (Seth Wenig/AP)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years 2022: Taylor Swift waves to graduates as she participates in a graduation ceremony for New York University at Yankee Stadium in New York, Wednesday, May 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) (Seth Wenig/AP)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years Taylor Swift performs onstage during the Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour at Lumen Field on July 22, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Mat Hayward/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management) (Mat Hayward/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Mana)
Photos: Taylor Swift through the years Taylor Swift performs onstage during "Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour" at Lucas Oil Stadium on November 01, 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management) (Kevin Mazur/TAS24/Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for TAS)
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