BTS ticket rush for post-military ‘Arirang’ world tour overwhelms sellers and reignites pricing debate

Fans across several continents stared at the same blue progress bar Friday, watching digital queues inch forward on Ticketmaster and local ticketing sites as seats for BTS’s first post-military world tour went on sale to the general public.

The scramble for the “Arirang World Tour”—82 stadium dates across five continents from April 2026 through March 2027—followed two days of fan-club presales that filled virtual waiting rooms, triggered technical glitches and pushed prices sharply higher in some markets. It is the group’s first full-scale tour since completing South Korea’s mandatory military service and their largest concert run to date.

The tour supports BTS’s upcoming studio album, “Arirang,” due March 20. It is the group’s first full-length album since 2020’s Map of the Soul: 7 and their first major group project since the 2022 anthology Proof. The combination of a long-awaited reunion, new music and a dense schedule of stadium shows has made the rollout an early test of a live-music industry still grappling with how to manage soaring demand for mega-tours.

A comeback built on duty and delay

All seven members of BTS—RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook—completed their military or alternative service by June 21, 2025, under a South Korean law that requires most able-bodied men to serve for about 18 to 21 months. The National Assembly revised the Military Service Act in 2020 to allow certain pop stars to delay enlistment until age 30, a change widely seen as accommodating BTS’s global success, but it did not exempt them outright.

The group’s staggered enlistments effectively put full-group activities on hold after 2022. Members released solo albums, toured individually and appeared in dramas and variety shows while serving or awaiting enlistment, but fans waited for the moment all seven would stand on the same stage again.

In handwritten New Year messages to fans earlier this month, the members signaled that 2026 would mark that return. “The year we’ve been waiting for has finally arrived,” Jimin wrote. RM told fans that “we’ve waited more earnestly than anyone else,” hinting at a comeback shaped by years apart.

BigHit Music, the band’s label, announced this month that Arirang would feature 14 new tracks and present what it called “the BTS of today,” adding that the album is “packed with honest stories” and “filled with the music that’s most true to BTS.”

‘Arirang’ goes global

The tour, named for Korea’s best-known folk song, is scheduled to open April 9 in Goyang, just northwest of Seoul, with three nights at Goyang Stadium. It is set to conclude March 14, 2027, in Manila, Philippines, after looping through Asia, North and South America, Europe and Oceania.

Current routing lists 82 shows in 34 cities across 23 countries, almost all in large stadiums or domes, including Tokyo Dome; Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida; Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas; MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey; SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California; and major venues in Madrid, London, Paris, São Paulo, Bangkok and Singapore.

The title Arirang carries particular weight at home. The traditional song, recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage, has long been associated with Korean resilience, longing and shared identity across the peninsula. Choosing it as the name of both album and tour links the group’s global ambitions to a distinctly Korean cultural symbol at a moment when their international reach is at its peak.

Cultural analysts say the move underscores how K-pop acts are increasingly leveraging national heritage as a selling point rather than smoothing it out for Western audiences, even as they fill U.S. and European stadiums.

Presales test a fragile system

BigHit and promoter Live Nation began the ticket rollout with a fan-club presale for BTS’s official ARMY membership on Jan. 22 and 23. To qualify, fans had to hold a valid membership through the Weverse platform and register by Jan. 18. Registered members used a unique ARMY membership number as a presale code on Ticketmaster and affiliated sites, with email addresses required to match across accounts.

Ticket limits were strict: four tickets per show and a limit on how many cities each membership could register for in North America and Europe. Ticketmaster characterized the structure as an anti-bot and anti-scalping measure, part of a broader industry push to keep tickets in the hands of fans rather than professional resellers.

In practice, the presale quickly showed the strains of that system. Fans in the United States and Europe reported hours-long virtual queues, error messages and abrupt log-outs as they tried to purchase seats. Some users said their accounts were temporarily frozen or flagged as “bot-like” after switching devices or internet connections mid-queue. Others said prices appeared to change during the checkout process, with seats reloading at higher amounts as they attempted to confirm purchases.

Three opening-night shows in Goyang sold out in the ARMY presale, prompting BigHit to announce additional dates in markets such as Tampa and Stanford, California. Local media in South Korea and the Philippines reported that tickets for several Asian dates were effectively gone within hours of the fan-club windows opening.

Prices climb, even before resale

Base prices for the tour vary by country and venue, and many were not disclosed until presales began. In South Korea, news reports showed VIP “soundcheck” packages in Goyang priced around 264,000 won (roughly $180 at recent exchange rates), with lower tiers around 198,000 won (about $135).

In the United States, standard stadium seats ranged widely by city and section, from lower-priced upper-deck seats in smaller markets to premium lower-bowl and floor seats in major cities. VIP packages, which can include early entry, soundcheck access and exclusive merchandise, clustered in the $700 to $900 range in some Texas venues, according to regional coverage.

Some fans described those VIP prices as relatively “reasonable” compared with similar packages for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour or Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour, which often broke the $1,000 mark. Others criticized what they saw as opaque pricing and alleged use of dynamic, demand-based pricing models that raised prices in real time as venues filled.

Ticketmaster and other sellers generally describe such price variation as a way to balance supply and demand, and note that artists and promoters ultimately approve pricing strategies. Consumer advocates and some lawmakers argue that dynamic pricing and fluctuating fees make it difficult for buyers to understand what a ticket will cost until the final checkout screen.

Secondary marketplaces moved quickly to fill the gap once presale allocations were exhausted. Listings on major resale platforms showed upper-level seats in some U.S. stadiums starting in the low hundreds of dollars and climbing to $600 or more in high-demand markets. Floor and VIP tickets were advertised at far higher prices.

Most tickets for the “Arirang World Tour” are mobile-only, and many venues are delaying the activation of barcodes until 48 hours before showtime, a common step aimed at deterring speculative resales and counterfeit tickets. It is unclear how effective those measures will be in discouraging scalping across dozens of countries over more than a year.

Ticketmaster under renewed scrutiny

The intense interest in BTS’s return comes as Live Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster’s parent company, continues to face questions from regulators and lawmakers over its dominance in the ticketing and live-events markets.

Following the chaotic 2022 presale for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which was marred by system crashes, long waits and limited inventory, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled “That’s the Ticket: Promoting Competition and Protecting Consumers in Live Entertainment.” Lawmakers there criticized Ticketmaster’s market power and fee structures and raised the possibility of antitrust action. The Department of Justice has since been reported to be examining the company’s practices.

The rollout of BTS tickets has revived some of those concerns among fans, who have taken to social media to document their experiences and share screenshots of error codes and shifting price displays. Consumer-rights groups say those posts add to a growing body of anecdotal evidence that the current system struggles to handle the largest tours, even when presales are restricted to verified fan groups.

Live Nation has previously said it welcomes “meaningful reforms” that address scalping and deceptive resale practices, while arguing that high-profile failures are due to extraordinary demand and bot attacks rather than structural flaws.

A tour with global economic reach

Beyond individual frustrations over tickets, economists say the “Arirang World Tour” is likely to have a broad impact on the cities it touches. Studies of past BTS shows in the United States estimated that a limited run of 12 stadium concerts in Los Angeles and Las Vegas in 2021 and 2022 generated more than $260 million in direct ticket revenue, alongside surges in hotel bookings, restaurant sales and local tourism.

This time, the group is scheduled to play nearly seven times as many dates, including multi-night stands in hubs such as Tokyo, London, São Paulo and Los Angeles, as well as stops in cities that rarely host K-pop stadium shows, such as El Paso, Texas, and Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Analysts project that the cumulative global impact, including travel, hospitality and retail spending, could reach tens of billions of dollars.

For HYBE, the Seoul-based entertainment company that owns BigHit, the tour and album are expected to shift its revenue balance back toward BTS after several years in which other acts and platform businesses carried more of the load. Rival agencies are likely to face pressure to mount their own large-scale tours as K-pop cements its place on the global festival and stadium circuit.

Fans between excitement and fatigue

For many BTS fans, known collectively as ARMY, the numbers and policy debates are secondary to the prospect of seeing the group together again. Social media feeds on Friday filled with screenshots of successful checkouts, seat maps, and travel plans for “destination concerts” in Seoul, Las Vegas and other cities.

Others shared disappointment at being shut out by high prices, limited inventory or technical failures. Community forums quickly turned into advice boards on navigating the general sale, avoiding account flags and deciding whether to risk buying from secondary sellers.

As the general on-sale continues across time zones, the “Arirang World Tour” is already achieving one of its goals: confirming that, after military service and a prolonged hiatus from group promotions, BTS can still mobilize a global audience at stadium scale. Whether the ticketing system built around that demand can keep pace remains an open question—one that will follow the band from Goyang to Manila, and every waiting room in between.