From festival stages to arena tours, event organizers at every scale rely on Tixr Waitlist to capture pre-authorized demand, guard against fraud, and give fans a flexible, trusted way to secure fast-moving tickets.
Post-sellout demand is one of the most overlooked revenue opportunities available to event organizers today. Tixr Waitlist gives that demand structure: a built-in queue that captures pre-authorized orders and confirms them automatically the moment inventory opens — no frantic refreshing or chaotic waiting rooms. This guide covers:
- What Tixr Waitlist is and why a growing number of organizers rely on it to sell more inventory
- How teams like NPU Live and Splash House use Waitlist to convert post-sellout demand into confirmed tickets and revenue
- How Waitlist works and what fans experience when they join
- How organizers configure and manage Waitlist in Studio
What is Tixr Waitlist?
Tixr Waitlist lets fans join the line for tickets that are sold out, running low, or intentionally held back, by pre-authorizing their card. If a ticket becomes available, the order is confirmed automatically. If it never does, the fan is never charged.
Because joining means placing a real, payment-backed order, Waitlist gives organizers a genuine read on demand, a way to convert that demand into revenue the moment inventory opens, and a built-in deterrent against bots and scalpers unwilling to risk a real card on uncertain inventory.
Waitlist activates whenever eligible ticket types run low or sell out, when the event organizer sets aside select inventory, or to control access from the very start of an onsale. Fans see it directly on the event page next to any ticket type it applies to, with no separate app or third-party tool required.
Adoption has climbed steadily: the share of festivals and large events using Tixr Waitlist roughly doubled between 2023 and 2025.
Real Examples of Waitlist in Action
Waitlist shows up differently depending on the event, the goal, and the moment an organizer reaches for it. These four examples span combat sports, house music, and destination festivals, and each one uses Waitlist to solve a distinct problem.
NPU Live turns a Pier 80 sellout into a capacity decision
When NPU Live's Big Game afterparty at San Francisco's Pier 80 sold out, the demand didn't stop, and Waitlist gave the team a way to measure exactly how much was left on the table. Rather than watch that interest disappear to resale, NPU Live used the pre-authorized orders piling up on the waitlist to justify expanding capacity, securing a permit from the city and then converting those waiting fans into confirmed sales once the additional inventory opened.
Waitlist orders ultimately accounted for 16% of total tickets fulfilled — revenue that would have otherwise been left behind — and the read on demand it produced is now a crucial part of how the team approaches its onsales.
Read the full story: How NPU Live Went Beyond a Record Sellout at Pier 80 with Tixr
BYON Combat runs an entire international debut through Waitlist
For its first-ever event outside Indonesia, combat sports brand BYON Combat brought its Showbiz series to Kuala Lumpur, and its fanbase followed. After the first presale sold out in seconds, the team ran the second presale and general onsale entirely through Tixr Waitlist, letting fans pre-authorize their cards to hold a place in line before any inventory was officially released.
The approach let BYON Combat screen out bots, capture real purchase intent, and see the scale of demand before committing tickets. Over 7,000 fans joined the waitlist for an event with a fraction of that capacity, more than three of every four purchases came through Waitlist, and better than 90% of fans checked out on mobile.
Read the full story: BYON Combat Makes Its International Debut with Tixr, Selling Out in Malaysia
Splash House captures new fans with Waitlist
Splash House, the poolside house-music festival across Palm Springs hotels, put Waitlist to work on the demand its 2025 edition generated well beyond available inventory. Waitlist became a reliable channel for the event, converting sold-out interest into a real contribution to ticket revenue.
What stands out most is who those buyers were: roughly 63% of the fans who came through Splash House's waitlist were new to the event, turning post-sellout demand into an audience-growth engine rather than just recovered sales.
Same Same But Different turns Waitlist into an early-bird fan advantage
Same Same But Different, the Southern California destination festival, built its 2025 pricing strategy around Waitlist in a way few events have tried. Instead of an early-bird tier, the festival invited fans to join the waitlist to lock in the lowest ticket price before the lineup was announced, with a 24-hour window after the reveal to decide whether to keep their spot before orders were processed.
.webp)
Demand arrived in waves that tracked against the festival's own announcements: a first surge when the Waitlist launched, then a sharper spike once Tier 1 pricing technically sold out and the waitlist became the only route to that price. In total, more than a thousand fans joined the waitlist ahead of the lineup announcement, committing to the festival on the strength of the brand alone.
How Tixr Waitlist Works for Fans
When tickets sell out for a high-demand event, Waitlist gives fans a path to secure tickets should they become available without the need for notifications, constant refreshing, or waiting rooms. Joining takes less than a minute on the event page: a fan picks the tickets they want, chooses an expiration date, and enters their payment details.
The experience is designed to be low-risk. Entering a card is a pre-authorization, not a charge, so a fan commits nothing more than a temporary hold that clears within a few days. They are only ever charged if their order actually comes through. There's no refreshing a page, no virtual waiting room, and no need to be online at the right moment. Once a fan joins, the system does the work, and if a ticket opens up for them, the full order is confirmed and delivered automatically.
Fans stay in control the whole way through. They choose an expiration date so they never receive tickets too close to an event once plans might have changed, and they can leave the Waitlist any time before an order is fulfilled, all from their Tixr account. A Waitlist order also locks in the price from the moment a fan joins, so even if pricing changes later, they keep the price they signed up for.
For fans who want the full step-by-step, explore our knowledge base: What is a waitlist and how to join one.
How Organizers Configure and Manage Tixr Waitlist
Waitlist is configured directly inside Studio, the same app organizers use to manage everything else about their event, so capturing post-sellout demand doesn’t require third-party tools or separate tracking.
Organizers control how the waitlist works from the start:
- Apply it to every ticket type or only the ones they choose
- Cap the total number of waitlist orders
- Let a fan waitlist a sold-out ticket and add an available one, like parking, in the same order
- Fulfill orders automatically as inventory opens, or keep them under full manual control
Waitlist triggers at the highest available price tier and holds each order's price once it's placed, so orders reflect current pricing and stay predictable for everyone involved. If an event offers payment plans, fans can use them on Waitlist orders as well, making higher-priced tickets more accessible.
For high-demand onsales, organizers can hold some or all inventory behind the Waitlist even when tickets are technically available to sell. This lets a team gauge real demand before releasing tickets, screen for suspicious purchasing activity, or vet registrations before any order goes through. Because a Waitlist order requires a real payment method and never guarantees a ticket, it also gives bots and scalpers little to work with, since there's nothing certain to grab and resell.
Waitlist also works alongside native Resale. Once an event sells out, fans can either choose to purchase verified tickets listed by other fans for resale, or join the waitlist for any new inventory the organizer releases.
Every order Waitlist captures tells organizers something useful: where demand is strongest by ticket type, package, market, and date. That insight carries directly into how they release held inventory, price future events, and plan capacity.
See how Tixr Waitlist can support your next event: get in touch with us.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Tixr Waitlist and how does it work?
Tixr Waitlist lets fans join the line for tickets that are sold out or not yet released by the event organizer. Fans join by pre-authorizing their card, and orders are confirmed automatically when eligible inventory opens, turning post-sellout interest into a pool of ready, payment-backed buyers.
When should I turn on a waitlist for my event?
Waitlist works well for high-demand onsales, sold-out events, and limited drops. It is also useful any time an organizer wants to measure genuine demand before committing to more tickets, added capacity, a second date, or a new experience.
Will a waitlist help me sell more tickets?
Yes. Waitlist converts demand that would otherwise be lost into confirmed sales when inventory opens, and it shows you where the next opportunity is, from adding capacity to releasing held inventory or opening premium packages.
How does a waitlist help me stop bots and scalpers?
Because a waitlist order requires a real payment method and never guarantees a ticket, there is nothing certain for a bot or scalper to grab and resell. Organizers can also hold inventory behind the waitlist to screen demand before any ticket is released.
Can I run a waitlist and resale at the same time?
Yes. Both can run on the same sold-out Tixr event, giving fans a verified way to buy tickets other fans list for resale or join the waitlist for new inventory. Organizers can set resale to take priority when listings are available, keeping all secondary demand on-platform.
What kinds of events work best with a waitlist?
Waitlist works across festivals, concerts, sports, conventions, destination events, and premium experiences. It delivers the most value when demand is uncertain, inventory is limited, or you want tighter control over how and when tickets are released.
Does Waitlist support payment plans?
Yes. When you offer payment plans for an event, fans can apply one to a waitlist order, which helps make higher-priced inventory accessible to a wider range of buyers.
-min.webp)
