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Another day, another round of Ticketmaster scrutiny – this time over the platform’s approach to assigning queue positions when fans are attempting to purchase high-demand tickets.
This latest wave of criticism was set in motion by a self-described Swiftie who took aim at Ticketmaster on X. As many know, from social media to the halls of Congress, pushback against the Live Nation subsidiary isn’t rare. And normally, the tame tweet in question probably would have flown under the radar.
“my top 5 horror movies: 1) ticketmaster 2) ticketmaster queues 3) ticketmaster prices 4) ticketmaster fees 5) not seeing my favorite artists live because of ticketmaster,” wrote the fed-up fan, who also seems to be a dedicated supporter of Olivia Rodrigo, Demi Lovato, Ariana Grande, and Sabrina Carpenter.
However, things changed when ex-Square exec Saumil Mehta, who’s been aboard Ticketmaster as global president since October, in a response said that he was open to fielding constructive feedback. From there, the fan voiced far-reaching queue-position concerns.
“It has previously been mention[ed] by TM that queue positions are random,” the fan responded in part, “but many people have run their own research showing this isn’t the case. For example, I have been unsuccessful in getting tickets to every show that has utilized a waiting room and queue since Ariana Grande back in September of 2025.
“Every queue I join puts my account at 80k+ in line. Additionally, every time I join from my mom’s account, it puts me at roughly 20k in line and one of my friends is always within the first few hundred to 1k. Considering we have joined over 50-100 sales from each account and our queue positions have remained consistent, it is hard to believe these queues are randomized from the waiting room,” the individual continued.
Following up, Mehta – who has, incidentally, been replying to all manner of critical tweets (“ticketmaster is going to hell,” a different X user penned) – indicated that Ticketmaster’s queue positions aren’t random.
“I appreciate this feedback,” Mehta said before requesting the individual’s email to conduct an internal investigation. “I don’t know where this notion that queue positions are random came from. I have never said it, and I have asked internally and cannot find it written in help content etc.”
(“Bots do not get first dibs. In fact, quite the opposite. The whole reason it [the queue process] cannot be random is because security measures are in place and they work in real time to block bots and bad actors,” Mehta added when addressing a separate tweet.)
Naturally, this clarification prompted speculation about precisely how Ticketmaster queues up possible ticket purchasers if the process isn’t random. And while plenty of conversations are unfolding on social media, it appears we’re without a concrete answer.
At the time of writing, neither Live Nation/Ticketmaster nor Mehta himself had elaborated on the subject. TicketNews, for its part, noted the conspicuous lack of queue clarity and explored Ticketmaster’s prior statements concerning the randomized nature of certain components of its virtual lines.
For now, we can be pretty close to sure about three points. First, although queue questions are taking center stage, they aren’t new; related talks have been occurring for some time.
Second, in an unfavorable legal and regulatory climate (and that’s putting it mildly) for Live Nation/Ticketmaster, the fresh controversy isn’t doing the business any favors.
And third, with congressmembers on both sides of the aisle having already scrutinized Live Nation/Ticketmaster’s allegedly anticompetitive practices, efforts to stop bots, ticketing fees, and much more, there’s definitely a chance that the current episode will catch the attention of federal lawmakers and spur an inquiry.
