The website crashed for a total of seven minutes after 250,000 people tried getting tickets
France Rugby World Cup 2023 organisers defend ticket strategy
Rugby World Cup organisers stand by the 2023 ticket strategy, claiming the amount of traffic on the site was the problem, not the platform itself. The website crashing at two separate moments left fans frustrated at missing out on pre-sale tickets.
Some 2.3 million more tickets are available for the tournament, after the 300,000 pre-sale tickets sold out within 12 hours. Scheduled to run from 15 March until 5 April, fans registered for the 2023 Family could obtain tickets early than general sale.
Available exclusively to registered 2023 Family members, a further 300,000 tickets for the 2023 Rugby World Cup are being released today.
Related: Rugby World Cup 2023 Extended
Fans still waiting for general sale tickets have to wait until 5pm GMT on 6 April. Releasing 200,000 tickets for general sale before individual fixture tickets become available in 2022, these tickets will still operate on a first come, first serve basis. Claiming it’s a fairer way to distribute tickets for the tournament than ballots, organisers defended this decision.
With 150,000 people connecting at noon on Monday 15 March for the launch of the tickets, the first day of pre-sales established a further 100,000 unique connections over the course of 12 hours. Selling 300,000 tickets inside the first 12 hours, organisers described the success of the strategy.
“We experienced exceptional numbers for the first day of pre-sales”, said a France 2023 Rugby World Cup spokesperson. “Selling 1000 tickets per minute at the highest peak, this placed a huge demand on our ticketing platform.
“Never has the Rugby World Cup generated this level of enthusiasm for the first day of ticket sales. We are very glad to see the public’s reaction to the offer.
“Our servers handles this phenomenal demand well. However, it did mean for seven minutes we experienced certain difficulties – between 1:06pm and 1:10pm, and 1:15pm and 1:18pm.
“500,000 people signed up to the 2023 family, but unfortunately, some couldn’t obtain tickets. We stand by the decision to use a first-come, first-serve basis, as we believe it’s the fairest way possible.”
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