KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Taylor Swift concert tickets will not be on sale Friday, according to Ticketmaster.
“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,” the ticketing company tweeted Thursday afternoon.
Friday would have been the first-day concert tickets were on sale to the general public.
“Swifties” who received a code to purchase presale tickets waited in an online queue for hours on Nov. 15 but were met with an error page on the Ticketmaster website.
A notice on the Ticketmaster website timestamped 12:47 p.m. Nov. 17 states that “there is now presale inventory remaining from TaylorSwiftTix Presale or Capital One Exclusive Cardholder Presale.”
It is unknown whether any tickets remain for the 52 shows that Swift has announced so far, or if Ticketmaster will resume sales.
Ticketmaster issued an explanation saying the verified fan registration broke records for the site. This explanation said over 3.5 million people pre-registered for the Taylor’s Verified Fan sale. Of these, 1.5 million were issued a presale code, while the other 2 million were put on a waiting list.
“Never before has a Verified Fan on sale sparked so much attention – or uninvited volume. This disrupted the predictability and reliability that is the hallmark of our Verified Fan platform,” the ticket sales site said.
Ticketmaster explained around 40% of those invited to a presale come to the site for the tickets. For Swift’s presale, fans alongside and a “staggering number of bot attacks” overloaded the system, up to four times its peak.
“This disrupted the predictability and reliability that is the hallmark of our Verified Fan platform,” Ticketmaster said. Overall, Ticketmaster estimated 15% of interactions across the site experienced any issues, including the passcode validation errors that “caused fans to lose tickets they had carted,” which they said was “15% too many.”
On Tuesday, more than 2 million tickets were sold, which Ticketmaster said was “the most tickets ever sold for an artist in a single day.” They add that all of the sold tickets went to Verified Fans and not bots. The ticketing platform added that 90% fewer tickets are on resell markets than in a typical sale and Ticketmaster is not currently reselling any tickets.
“While it’s impossible for everyone to get tickets to these shows, we know we can do more to improve the experience and that’s what we’re focused on,” wrote Ticketmaster.
The announcement comes after the Tennessee Attorney General expressed concern about the company’s handling of the concert ticket sales. An investigation is underway to ensure that no consumer protection laws were violated, said AG Jonathan Skrmetti on Tuesday.
Swift is set to perform in Nashville on May 5, 6 & 7 at Nissan Stadium.
The tour announcement is on the heels of the release of Swift’s 10th album, “Midnights.” The tour kicks off March 17 in Glendale, Arizona.
