Drake fans snap up expensive tickets as Boy Meets World European tour sells out

Drake has never been in higher demand as shows on his Boy Meets World Tour sold out this morning (14 October). Tickets for the European dates were released at 9am and were snapped up within minutes, prompting the One Dance rapper to add extra performances. The popular demand may come as a surprise considering fans had complained about the expensive ticket prices with some starting at £100 ($122).

Following on from his incredibly successful Summer Sixteen jaunt, the Canadian hitmaker will begin his new trek on 21 January in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Even after one minute of being onsale, buyers complained they were unable to purchase tickets as most venues and dates sold out quickly.

One Drake fan tweeted: "I was on website for drake tickets from.9:01 and they said all gone.. what a pile of crap," while another wrote: "Drake tickets actual sold out in like 4 minutes and ticketmaster made me wait in a queue so missed it genuinely want to cry."

Another revealed that tickets had already started appearing on the secondary ticket marketplace, tweeting: "Been in the queue for an hour but #Drake tickets sold out and already on resale for £250-£700 #nothappy."

Soon after, ticket-selling websites announced that extra dates had been added for Leeds on 9 February and London's O2 Arena on 14 and 15 February.

Clearly, when it came down to the crunch, the sky-high ticket prices could not deter dedicated Drake fans from rushing to see him on tour. It was reported that standing tickets would set concertgoers back £110 while others hoping to nab the best seats would have to fork out even more.

One critic accused Drake of "ripping off his fans", while another quipped: "Alright I didn't expect Drake tickets to be that expensive like I'll have to sell myself to afford them." Sharing her heartbreak, another fan said: "Why do the drake tickets have to be so expensive ffs I've been waiting years for this."

Expensive concert tickets have long been a hot topic of debate in the music industry. Musicians such as Elton John and Coldplay have warned fans to be careful of falling victim to ticket touts when buying on the secondary marketplace but many of these websites have assured consumers that their marketplaces are safe.

David Marcus, chief commercial officer at ticket marketplace ScoreBig, previously told IBTimes UK how it is largely viewed as the performer's duty to monitor their ticket sales. Marcus explained: "The artistes should take responsibility to understand how their tickets are distributed, how touring decisions will affect fans' ticket buying experiences, and how fans will experience ticket prices.

"The tools are available to the artistes to deal with these issues head on, they can decide to charge prices closer to market, or they can decide to lock prices down using tools like paperless ticketing and invitation ticketing, which gives artists an opportunity to weed known brokers out of the ticket buying process and helps to ensure more fans get tickets and resale is limited."

IBTimes UK contacted Live Nation and Ticketmaster but they would not comment on the rising prices of concert tickets.

Remaining tickets for Drake's The Boy Meets World Tour can be purchased from Ticketmaster and Live Nation.