Dungeons and Dragons gamers and Taylor Swift fans have something in common: their distaste for Ticketmaster.
The table top role playing game (TTRPG) is heading to New York City’s iconic Madison Square Garden for Dimension 20’s live show, “Gauntlet at the Garden.” The show will see Dungeon Master (DM) Brennan Lee Mulligan take the stage alongside comedians and progamers, promising a night of comedy combined with RPG.
While D&D first garnered massive attention in the ’80s, fans saw just how popular the game still is today after Gauntlet in the Garden tickets went on sale. The show, presented by Live Nation, released tickets via ticketing giant Ticketmaster. While tickets started around $150-$200, that price quickly rose amid Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing policy — which increases prices based on demand — sending prices soaring to unattainable heights.
Throughout the presale, pop culture commentator Liz Duff tracked the price increase, which saw ticket rise to over $2,300 each. This price level mirrored tickets to Taylor Swift’s coveted Eras Tour.
Dimension 20 Live tickets now going for more than Taylor Swift tickets with dynamic and platinum pricing on pic.twitter.com/IgH7LWEBgy
— Liz Duff @producerliz (@producerlizz) April 10, 2024
Dimension 20 fans began to lash out at the ticketing giant.
1145pm est
HAHAHAHAHA… wut? Id better get a playable PC killed by BLeeM at these prices.Tag me when the class action is organized.#dimension20#ticketmaster pic.twitter.com/97RbCPUYpl
— Content Deadzone (@maybeatheory) April 11, 2024
dimension 20 tickets in the 100s are $225 while the ones in the 200s go up to $900-1000. not to mention the floor seats are going up to $2300 for a single ticket. this is worse than taylor swift prices. @Ticketmaster get your shit together most people can't afford this.
— 𝙻𝚒𝚟 🌙 (@mooncliffs) April 10, 2024
Not even a platinum seat and located in section 200, Ticketmaster has a ticket priced at over $1k for Dimension 20's show at Madison Square Garden. pic.twitter.com/UbZzMgfhdM
— Tamara Fuentes (@tamara_fuentes) April 10, 2024
Welp I left the Dimension 20 presale after getting through the queue because I wasn't about to drop $97 on the worst seat in the venue. Live Nation/Ticketmaster is a top tier capitalist villain.
— Sailor Laudna (@SailorLaudna) April 10, 2024
Listen, I’m glad dimension 20 is big enough to be in Madison Square Garden, but like fuck Ticketmaster
— over the gar-dan wall (@Dan_the_baker) April 10, 2024
Following the remaining presales and general sale — which saw tickets remain at stagnant “platinum prices,” Dimension 20 issued a statement on the sale, noting that the last time Dimension 20 held a live show in 2019, they had to work to fill the Bell House Theater in Brooklyn, which sat around 200 people. They figured that it would be pretty hard to fill the Garden and “misjudged the situation, to say the least.”
“Even though the UK live show tour tickets had sold quickly, it was nothing compared to what we saw with the situation over the Gauntlet at the Garden Tickets,” Dimension 20 said. Dynamic Pricing / Platinum Tickets had not been something explained to us, nor something presented as something we had the ability to opt out of.”
They went on to note that once they had a better understanding of the situation, “we communicated to Live Nation that it was Droupout and the cast’s desire to opt out of all dynamic pricing tickets for this event and all events going forward.” While Dimension 20 said the average cost of all tickets sold was around $119 each, they recognize that “plenty of fans who wanted to attend got priced out quickly.”
In order to address this, Dimension 20 said they will stop Dynamic Pricing options for all future shows and are introducing “Dimensioneer Tickets” — a lottery system where fans can purchase up to two tickets for $35 each.
“We are so deeply grateful to everyone who has supported Dropout and Dimension 20 over the years and made this event sell out so quickly,” Dimension 20 said. “And now that we have a better sense of how all of this works, the next live show will go much smoother. That’s been the journey of Dropout and Dimension 20 – trying a bunch of stuff, figuring out what works, and doing it better the next time around.
“Ultimately, we’re so grateful to have a venue that could accommodate so many of you. We could never have dreamed five years ago of having thousands of you in one place.”
While D&D gamers were the latest to witness Ticketmaster’s Dynamic Pricing policy, they certainly weren’t the first. No matter the genre, fans all experienced the same scenario over the past year: they’d struggle through Ticketmaster’s ticket-buying process — leading to either being kicked-out of the onsale queue or placed in the infamous waitlist — just to reach a checkout page and find unattainable prices.
Most notably, Swift’s Eras Tour presale was so chaotic that it sparked an investigation by the Department of Justice into Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s 2010 merger, pointing to monopolistic and alleged anticompetitive practices.
Tickets to this year’s Gauntlet at the Garden officially sold out via the venue’s official website. Fans still looking to score a spot at the show can shop for tickets and compare prices at secondary ticketing sites below:
Dimension 20 Tickets
Dimension 20 tickets at MEGASeats (use code TICKETNEWS for 10% off your order)
Dimension 20 tickets at StubHub
Dimension 20 tickets at Vivid Seats
Dimension 20 tickets at Ticket Club | Free membership with code TICKETNEWS
