- Ticketmaster’s president revealed that queue positions are not random, contradicting a 2018 company article.
- This has led music fans to believe that the company determines the location of queues based on account activity.
- This adds to the theory that Ticketmaster prioritizes scalpers and resellers over genuine fans.
Ticketmaster has found itself in yet another catastrophic hole thanks to its president, who just dropped a massive bombshell on queue positions.
For years, music fans have been told that the lines on Ticketmaster are random to give everyone a chance to win tickets to see their favorite artists. Turns out the live music giant lied to our faces.
A conversation on X between Ticketmaster president Saumil Mehta and fan account @lexs_version sparked this, where Mehta answered the latter’s questions. complaints about queue positions, saying he “doesn’t know where this notion that queue positions are random comes from.” You can read his full response below.
I appreciate these comments. I don’t know where this idea that positions in the queue are random comes from. I’ve never said it, and I’ve asked internally and can’t find it written in the help content etc. That said, I understand where you’re coming from. Would it be possible…May 13, 2026
According to Mehta, no such claim had been made by him or anyone at Ticketmaster, but it very quickly met its match when a multitude of accounts posted a 2018 post shared by the official Ticketmaster account page explicitly stating that queue placements are assigned randomly (see below). Mehta has since remained silent on the radio, leaving us without an explanation.
This raised a new burning question: If Ticketmaster doesn’t randomize queue placement and it doesn’t matter what time you join the online queue, what criteria does Ticketmaster use to determine queue numbers?
We actually got this idea from your company! pic.twitter.com/TyejU3OauWMay 13, 2026
The hole only gets deeper
In the original When they tried this on a separate account, each lobby they joined placed them around the 20,000 mark, resulting in a strangely consistent placement pattern.
However, this is just an example and apparently these consistent placements in queues are common for many people. This opened a massive investigation among music fans who now attribute it to one theory: account activity.
This has led users to believe that accounts with higher activity tend to get placements with lower numbers in Ticketmaster’s queue, giving them a better chance of purchasing tickets. For example, one user thinks that the reason he was able to purchase multiple tickets for a single tour is because he uses his account to transfer each ticket he buys to those who attend the show with him.
I’ll add to this rant – the reason I’ve seen Taylor and I see Harry/Olivia multiple times is my husband’s Ticketmaster account. it always gets queue numbers below 2,000, often in the hundreds. the most notable activity on his account? the fact that he transfers EVERY TICKET HE PURCHASES https://t.co/PfgSIAQjLUMay 13, 2026
Today, music fans are even more convinced that the company has always prioritized resellers and resellers because, if we base this on account activity, accounts designed to scam others would have to spend a lot of time buying tickets and then coming back through Ticketmaster to list them for resale, where they can get away with fees well above face value.
As a result, this means that Ticketmaster can potentially make more money on resale fees, while true music fans have to pay exorbitant prices for ticket resale, or spend money on VIP tickets and other exclusive packages – in other words: the types of tickets that are usually the only ones left due to their low demand.
This is still just a theory, and Mehta has neither confirmed nor denied whether this is the case, but the longer Mehta stays silent, the more agitated and demanding customers become.
Ticketmaster has been under scrutiny since the Eras Tour fiasco, and it hasn’t been long since Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation, was deemed an illegal monopoly – so Mehta’s apparent mistake is really the icing on the cake.
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