Features
BookMyShow Buckles Under Coldplay Onsale In India As 13 Million Try To Secure Tickets
Another blockbuster tour has left millions of fans disappointed at not being able to secure tickets: Coldplay‘s long-awaited return to India after nine years.
The onsale on Sept. 22 was “a landmark moment in India’s live entertainment history,” according to a BookMyShow rep, who said that a total of 13 million fans tried to secure a ticket for the two shows initially scheduled at Mumbai’s D Y Patil Stadium, Jan. 18-19.
Coldplay immediately added a third show, Jan. 21, which also sold-out in no time. The BookMyShow rep told Pollstar, “we saw true fandom, overwhelming love and incredible excitement on BookMyShow for Coldplay’s Music Of The Spheres World Tour 2025 in India. With 13 million fans eager to get tickets and logged in, emotions ran high—some celebrating while most others were left disappointed.”
Frustrations among fans ran high, with many sharing screenshots of their purchasing experience on social media, showing hundreds of thousands of people ahead of them in the online queue. Some local news reports say that fans thad had signed in to BookMyShow to join the onsale, which opened at 12 p.m. local time, but got logged out the moment it began. After logging back in, they’d find themselves in incredibly long queues.
Mumbai’s D Y Patil Stadium has a capacity of 55,000, it was unclear at press time, how many spectators it would hold on each night of Coldplay. When U2 performed there in 2019, the boxoffice report submitted to Pollstar showed a sold-out capacity of 42,590.
Assuming that same capacity for Coldplay’s shows, the band would have to perform around 305 concerts at the venue to satisfy the overall demand of 13 million, i.e. set up shop in Mumbai for a one-year residency.
India has a population of around 1.4 billion. There are more than 50 cities with a population of more than one million, Mumbai alone counts about 22 million.
Given these numbers, and the fact that there’s no circuit across the entire country yet, it seems like the Coldplay onsale couldn’t have gone any other way.
“We’ve worked hard to ensure every fan had a fair chance to secure tickets, providing clear, step-by-step booking guides and maintaining transparent communication through all our official channels,” the BookMyShow rep continued.
“We implemented a queueing system to manage the overwhelming demand and addressed issues caused by suspicious and malicious traffic within minutes, causing a brief delay, but ensuring minimal disruption for genuine fans. Due to the unprecedented demand, a third Mumbai show was added shortly thereafter, which also received a fantastic response. To those who got tickets, congratulations! For those who missed out, we understand your disappointment and are committed to bringing memorable entertainment experiences your way.”
The fact that fans got logged out of their purchase the moment the onsale kicked off was interpreted by some as the result of malicious intent on the part of BookMyShow and promoter Live Nation. Mumbai-based lawyer Amit Vyas, founder of Vertices Partners, reportedly filed a complaint with the city’s Economic Offences Wing, accusing both companies of colluding to get tickets onto secondary platforms like Viagogo, where tickets appeared shortly after the onsale had kicked off at huge markups.
A statement BookMyShow published on its socials reads, “BookMyShow has no association with any ticket selling/reselling platforms such as Viagogo and Gigsberg or third party individuals for the purpose of reselling of Coldplay’s Music Of The Spheres World Tour 2025 in India.
“Scalping is strictly condemned and punishable by law in India. We have filed a complaint with the police authorities and will provide complete support to them in the investigation of this matter.
“We urge you not to fall victim to these scams. Any tickets bought from unauthorised sources will be at the risk of the consumer, and can turn out to be fake tickets. Beware of such scammers.”
A request from Pollstar to viagogo, asking how such a huge amount of tickets may have ended up on viagogo while the primary seller’s site reportedly crashed, was met with the following response from a viagogo spokesperson: “viagogo is a safe, secure and regulated global marketplace that is open to all. Our platform is fully compliant with Indian law – as it is in all markets in which it operates. Tickets listed on viagogo come from a range of sources including multinational event organizers, professional resellers, corporate ticket holders, season ticket holders, sponsors and fans who simply can no longer attend an event.”
Pollstar has also requested comment from lawyer Amit Vyas to no avail.