Ariana Grande ticket prices are up 43% since October 13 following the ticket cancellation fiasco
What Happened and When
Oct 14, 2025
Public reporting and posts made it clear that Ticketmaster was reviewing Ariana’s Eternal Sunshine Tour orders and canceling some for terms-of-use reasons. The same day, TicketData charts for many cities show a clear step up in the lowest available listing price. If you load the 1-month view and hover over Oct 14, you can see the jump, then higher prices on most days that follow. This matches the public messaging that orders were being reviewed and, in some cases, later reinstated after review.
Oct 20, 2025
Public posts and roundups described an appeal and identity-check deadline in that window. If you received a cancellation notice, you were told to appeal and verify by that date.
Oct 24, 2025
Unresolved cases were set to be canceled on Oct 24 if the buyer did not complete the required steps by the earlier deadline. Reports on the 24th and 25th reflected that automatic cancellations had landed for people who did not finish verification. The TicketData chart shows yet another climb upwards in most cities on this date.
Artist acknowledgement
The artist asked fans to rely on official messaging while reviews were handled. That is on the record.
What the Persona identity check involves
The identity check is handled through Persona, the third-party service Ticketmaster uses for account verification. It’s a strict process — the same kind used in banking, loan applications, and other financial services. With your phone or computer camera on, you’ll be asked to:
- Take a live photo of yourself (a selfie with liveness)
- Upload an official photo ID and show it to the camera.
Those pages also note that it is easiest on a mobile device and that opening the Persona link on multiple devices or tabs can cause the submission to fail. After you submit, a review window is stated, and access is restored if you pass. Persona’s own product documentation describes standard checks used by clients: capture of a government ID image and a selfie, with anti-fraud and liveness steps. That is consistent with what buyers were asked to do. The security check cannot be "spoofed" - if the name on your ID doesn’t match the name used to buy the tickets, you’ll almost certainly fail the Persona check.
What TicketData shows on the key dates
Oct 14
Across many dates, the cheapest available listing jumps on this date. It is not a slow drift. It looks like a stair-step where lower-priced anchors are gone or paused, and the new floor holds higher for most of the week that follows.
Oct 24–25
Around the cutoff, you can see a second push or, at minimum, a firm hold near the higher range set on the 14th. That aligns with the publicly described auto-cancel date for unresolved cases.
Because every building is different, dollar levels vary. What repeats is the shape around those dates.
Are all shows affected?
No. While security checks were sent out for all shows, the effect was highly uneven across different tour stops.
Cities with the Largest Increases
The most extreme price surge is clearly visible for the Oakland, CA (June 6th) show.
- Austin, TX (June 26th): The Get-In price line for this event jumps dramatically around the cancellation period. It moved from approximately $675 on October 13th to a peak of around $1,354 on October 25th. This represents essentially a doubling of the Get-In Price.
Another highly affected city was Los Angeles, CA (June 17th):
- Los Angeles, CA (June 17th): The Get-In price line for this event jumps from approximately $677 on October 13th to a current price (as of October 27th) of $925.
Cities with Minimal Impact
In contrast, several cities saw very little movement, if any, during this high-volatility period, suggesting fewer tickets cancelled, or less overall demand for these shows. Examples include all 3 Florida shows at Amerant Bank Arena.
What happens next?
It’s hard to predict where prices go from here. Nearly every show has seen a sharp rise since mid-October, but there’s still a long runway before the tour begins. When Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour faced a similar surge, many expected prices to cool off later - they generally didn’t. The same pattern could hold here. What seems almost certain is that there won’t be a complete “re-do” or a fresh on-sale. More than 90% of tickets are already in verified hands (meaning accounts that were deemed legit without needing verification, or were able to pass the Persona check), and there’s no real precedent for just cancelling all sales and starting over in a situation like this.