Photo: Matushchak Anton (Shutterstock)
Ticket revenue is way up after the lull caused by the COVID-19 lockdowns. We may never want to take live events for granted again, and it seems like every major artist is touring now to make up for lost time, so we have plenty of opportunities to see our favorite acts, teams, or entertainers. With all this fun available, though (and, you know, inflation), it’s worth trying to save a few bucks, since festivals, shows, and games are already pretty expensive. Let’s take a look at some of the leading ticket sale platforms to determine which is best.
Here’s what frequent ticket buyers say
Your best bet, according to Redditors in the know, is to go to the box office at the arena or event space for a ticket, as fees are usually pretty low when you buy them in-person. Of course, for events with waitlists or ones that you’re planning to travel for, that’s not always an option. Plus, buying your tickets online—hell, on your phone—is so convenient, it’s might be worth a few extra bucks to you. Let’s just make sure you’re not spending too many extra bucks.
The most recommended ticket sale apps on Reddit are, by far, SeatGeek and TickPick. Vivid Seats gets a few mentions, while the big players like Ticket Master and Stubhub are widely panned because of all the fees they tack on to the prices.
Putting ticket platforms to the test
Let’s do a real-world test of the major sites: Ticketmaster, StubHub, Vivid Seats, SeatGeek, and TickPick. There’s also a service called GameTime we’ll look at, but that one is specifically for last-minute gets. For our purposes here, let’s say we want to go to the Sept. 20 game at Yankee Stadium, during which the Bronx Bombers will face the Pittsburgh Pirates. We’ll go for two tickets in Section 231, Row 10.
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Ticketmaster: Ticketmaster does list the full price you’ll pay for each ticket as $73.75 each, breaking that down into $62 for each ticket and $11.75 in fees. That’s more upfront than many sites, which is a plus, but those fees are hefty. Further, that total should add up to $147.50 for two tickets, but at checkout, you’re asked for $150.80. There’s another fee in there somewhere, but it’s not broken out or explained. Also in Ticketmaster’s favor is the fact that it displays a picture of what the field looks like from those seats.
SeatGeek: SeatGeek also displays the total price you’ll pay including fees…but it’s $61 each vs. Ticketmaster’s $73.75. The fees for each ticket are $18, which are higher than Ticketmaster’s, but the price of each ticket without the fees is $43. Pleasantly, while SeatGeek says you’ll pay $61 each, which should total $122, the total at checkout says $120.76. There is no explanation given, but we should not look a gift horse in the mouth. Again, SeatGeek displays a picture of what the field looks like from the seats.
Vivid Seats: For the same tickets, Vivid Seats is charging $53.66 each, with $13.66 of that being made up of fees. That’s lower than SeatGeek and much lower than Ticketmaster. Once again, you get the picture of what your view will be like. Vivid Seats has taken the lead. At checkout, there are no additional fees.
StubHub: StubHub does not have the Section 231, Row 10 tickets listed at all. This illustrates that not only does pricing vary across these platforms, but selection does, too. For comparison’s sake, let’s look at two tickets in Row 1 of the same section. They are listed at $50 each, which includes “estimated taxes and service fee,” but not the fulfillment fee. That fulfillment fee ends up being $2.48 each, so the total you’ll pay is $105.61—but you don’t find that out until clicking through almost all of the checkout pages, which is a negative. StubHub also does not display the photo of your expected view.
TickPick: TickPick lists the tickets in our chosen section and row at $50—and stays true to its promise of “no service fees” all the way through. For two people to attend the game, it would cost a flat fee of $100. You also get that oh-so-valuable photo of what the field would look like from the seats.
Now, about GameTime. The tickets on this platform are more limited, and the site is designed for “last-minute” buys. There is only one set of seats available in Section 231, but it’s two seats together in Row 7—and they’re $17 each. With fees, they come out to $28 each and there is no extra processing charge, so your grand total is $56.
If you don’t care about a specific seat, GameTime is your best bet. If you do care about being in a certain location, or just like to have options and plan ahead, TickPick is the best, followed by Vivid Seats. Your mileage may vary, of course, depending on the size of your chosen venue and the popularity and frequency of whatever you’re trying to attend, but this field test matches up with what the frequent buyers on Reddit say, so at least you can feel comfortable just ruling out Ticketmaster and SeatGeek from the jump.
