Star Wars Celebration Los Angeles Sells Out in Record Time

 

Well, that was certainly intense!

Yesterday Star Wars Celebration tickets went on sale and 5 hours 54 chaotic minutes later they were officially sold out.

As always, the VIP Jedi Master tickets were the first to sell out. Officially the sell out was announced at 1:23PM PT. Realistically the vast majority of VIP tickets went in seconds with the later official time being the result of one or two tickets dropping back into stock as shopping carts timed out.

This could also be seen with adult 4-Day tickets. The sell out was officially announced at 2:26PM PT. In practice, 4-Day tickets were flickering in and out of stock within the first hour.

Friday and Saturday adult tickets were next, with their sell out officially confirmed at 4:33PM PT. Then, at 5:54PM PT, Star Wars Celebration was officially sold out.

This is officially the fastest sell out on record for the full event. But that isn't quite the full story.

Looking back at some old posts on this blog, Chicago took "less than 48 hours" to sell out of 5-Day badges. Anaheim (the 2020 pre-covid original sale) then annihilated that record, selling out of 4-Day badges in under two hours. The re-sale for 2022 was slightly slower at around 6 hours but tickets were in and out of stock from around the half hour mark. London then set the record for both VIP and 4-Day passes, officially selling out in 32 minutes and 1 hour 15 minutes respectively. Japan took a little longer, with VIP selling out in 34 minutes and 3-Day passes going in 2 hours 55 minutes.

Obviously these are the times the announcements were officially made so it's not a perfect measure and it doesn't reflect how quickly tickets were flickering in and out of availability, but it does show that for 4-Day badges this Celebration is not unique. In fact it took longer to officially sell out of weekend badges than both London and Anaheim (2020).

Now, anecdotally, this was by far the most stressful queue I've personally experienced. It was the first time I've had a friend purchase my tickets as they got through first, and the first time I probably wouldn't have got 4-Day badges if I was buying on my own (they were flickering in and out of stock when I finally got in). The merchandise refused to let me check out as international/will call and I ultimately had to pay for shipping and have it sent to a friend in the US who I'll meet up with at Celebration. I had queues on some devices that never seemed to move. And I know others had it far worse.

I guess I just wanted to point out that the sell out times we say yesterday are well within what we should normal expect for both VIP and 4-Day, and for Friday and Saturday to be honest. The only ones that really took me by surprise were Thursday and Sunday selling out as well. But I would say that can be chalked up to FOMO from people in line seeing the event selling out and also some fans buying an additional single day to purchase merch with rather than risking losing VIP or 4-Day tickets at the checkout. I've already seen fans selling those days at cost so it definitely wasn't scalpers causing those single days to go and they are the only ones that wouldn't normally sell out quickly.

Obviously this isn't going to help anyone who had a bad experience yesterday. Like I said, mine was the toughest I've ever had as well. I just wanted to balance out some of the "scalpers got them all" hyperbole I've seen online.

All I can say is that we see tickets sold unofficially on the secondary market every Celebration. And every time it's only VIP that really increases in value. As Celebration gets closer we always see weekend and single days offered at cost (or less!!) as plans change and people can't go. So stay hopeful, you should be able to find tickets as we get closer.

There may also be an official reseller or transfer process at some point. It was Lyte from Chicago until London. Japan had the ticket transfer system. I'm sure something will be announced for LA.

Same for hotels (which may have sold out even faster than tickets). More hotels are expected to be released into the hotel block at 9:00AM PT today when it opens to the public today.

Ticket day is always stressful, I hope people got what they wanted and, if not, I hope they can find it as we get closer. I would say if you're considering buying from the secondary market then go with established communities like the discord group or VCN. It's still buyer's own risk but normally sellers/buyers there have feedback and trust built up from past events rather than using something like eBay.

I'll see you all in LA!!