Five million people applied for tickets for Ed Sheeran's 2017 UK arena tour, according to the star's booking agent.
The tour kicks off this weekend at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow after a two-night stop-off at Dublin’s 3Arena - and demand reached staggering levels when it went on sale in February.
“It has been absolutely off the scale,” his agent Jon Ollier, of CAA, told Music Week. “I'm told that, in the UK alone, five million people tried to buy tickets, which is unprecedented.”
The UK tour is being co-promoted by Kilimanjaro Live and DHP Family, with AEG Presents handling the Scottish dates. Apart from a one-off show in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall last month, the concerts will be Sheeran's first domestic dates since his triumphant three-night run at Wembley Stadium in 2015.
"I expected it to carry on where he left off because Ed is a master of confounding everyone's expectations," said promoter Steve Tilley, of Kilimanjaro. "You can't rest on your laurels with Ed, he's very unpredictable; you think he'll do one thing and he'll do another.
"I've heard songs acoustically that didn't make this record that I thought were outstanding. He just carries on confounding expectations."
DHP Family's Dan Ealam added: "Everyone knew that demand was going to be huge. The arenas sold out so fast, even faster than last time. He's only got bigger since then with the success of the singles and the record."
See the latest edition of Music Week or click here for our full preview of Ed Sheeran's UK tour.
