Amid ongoing pre-sales, BigBang’s Singapore concert sparks $750 Help-To-Buy service prices

SINGAPORE – With pre-sales for BigBang’s 20th anniversary concert in Singapore having kicked off on Aug 11 and virtual queue numbers on Ticketmaster exceeding 500,000 on the first day, the secondary ticketing market is seeing unprecedented price spikes, with “Help-To-Buy” (HTB) services charging unusually high surcharges.

Fans hoping to secure top-tier tickets for the K-pop boy band’s BigBang 2026-2027 World Tour XX : Cosmos show at the National Stadium on Oct 17 are being quoted up to $750 for the proxy booking fee alone – a fee that is on top of the official ticket prices, which range from $158 to $498.

HTBs act as personal shoppers for concert tickets. Fans pay a fee, and HTBs will help them join virtual queues and navigate the often stressful online experience of trying to buy tickets to highly sought-after concerts. Customers are usually refunded if the service fails to secure the requested tickets.

Tickets for the Singapore show went on sale on Aug 11, starting with the official VIP membership pre-sale, followed by the Trip.com pre-sale on Aug 12 and public sale on Aug 13.

According to HTB services that The Straits Times reached out to, the rates for BigBang are higher than the industry norm because of intense demand, technological costs and the specific demographic of the band’s fan base.

While HTB rates for BigBang can range from $110 to $750, the prices for fellow K-pop stars BTS’ gigs at the same venue on Dec 17, 19, 20 and 22 ranged from $130 to $480.

HTB prices for Twice at Singapore Indoor Stadium on Oct 11 and 12, 2025, were between $65 and $110, while 2NE1’s Dec 21 and 22, 2024, concerts at the same venue were priced from $70 to $80.

Bypassbyjun, an HTB provider, noted that the demand for BigBang’s comeback is staggering. “We aren’t just seeing high volume. We’re seeing unprecedented levels of concurrent users in the online virtual queues, sometimes up to a few hundred thousand,” a spokesperson said.

Defending the steep fees, the spokesperson explained that the money covers necessary investments in high-capacity queue servers. “While we understand that added service fees are frustrating, they directly fund the dedicated infrastructure and digital encryption we deploy to ensure these limited tickets are secured for the fans.”

Another HTB provider, TicketFairSG, pointed out that BigBang’s fan base comprises more mature K-pop fans who have waited a long time after the group – now consisting of Taeyang, G-Dragon and Daesung – went on hiatus in 2018.

BigBang last performed here in 2016 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium as part of their Made VIP tour.

“Bigbang’s target listeners are mostly working adults now with higher spending power and are not as familiar with ticketing websites,” a spokesperson noted.

TicketFairSG also highlighted that the extreme scarcity, with BigBang announcing only one Singapore show so far, has driven rates much higher.

Listings for the concert tickets surfaced on online marketplace Carousell soon after the VIP pre-sale began on Aug 11 at noon, with one reseller offering a pair of VIP Diamond tickets ($458 each) for $3,200.

BigBang fans like Vanessa Goh, a 32-year-old who works in the tech industry and has followed BigBang since 2007, felt the official ticket prices were “justified, given how long they have been having a hiatus”, but baulked at the “crazy” third-party surcharges.

She told ST: “In this case, if I were to go for the most expensive ticket, or even slightly lower, it’s essentially paying two to three times more, which just seems insane. I would rather try (to buy) the tickets by myself.”

Demand for BigBang tickets worldwide is also fuelled by the group’s active return to the studio, with a new single, Biiig, set to drop on Aug 19. South Korean agency YG Entertainment has described the song – BigBang’s first release since 2022’s Still Life – as a milestone track that embodies the group’s musical evolution and identity.

To mark their two decades in show business, BigBang will hold a series of events in Seoul from Aug 14 to 23, including an exhibition at Avenuel Art Hall and special lighting installations modelled after BigBang’s official yellow light sticks illuminating Seokchon Lake.

The Cosmos world tour, which comprises 33 shows across 19 stops, will start in Goyang, South Korea, on Aug 21 and travel to Oakland and East Rutherford in the US, as well as Paris, London and Taipei, before coming to Singapore.