How much is too much for K-pop concert tickets?

Fan club pre-sales for BTS' upcoming Arirang world tour kicked off on Jan 22 and, within moments, more than 100,000 fans had flooded into the online queue.

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Seats for the first three concerts in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, in April sold out almost instantly, with anticipation high for the group's first such tour in nearly four years.

BTS' agency BigHit Music said on Jan 27 that tickets for the 41 concerts in North America and Europe were also snapped up quickly after going on sale on Jan 24. This leg of the tour covers the United States, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Belgium, Britain, Germany and France.

With competition fierce, many fans found themselves edged out by fractions of a second. While some secured tickets, others were pushed deep into the waiting line, with tens of thousands in front of them, underscoring both BTS' enduring demand and the increasingly punishing reality of K-pop ticketing.

The difficulty of securing tickets was matched by sticker shock.

The highest-priced tickets for the Goyang shows reached 264,000 won (S$230), a 20 per cent increase from the 220,000 won sound check package sold for BTS' Permission To Dance On Stage concerts in 2022, just before the group went on hiatus.

Compared with 2018, when top-tier tickets peaked at around 110,000 won, prices have risen by 240 per cent.