Overview
Ticket types define what you’re selling: General Admission, VIP, Student pricing, reserved seats. Once tickets start selling, some options lock to prevent breaking orders already placed.
Creating a Ticket Type
- Navigate to your ticketed event
- Go to Ticket Types
- Click Add Ticket Type
- Configure settings (see below)
- Save
Ticket Type Settings
Name
What buyers see when selecting tickets:
- “General Admission”
- “Student”
- “VIP Reserved Seating”
- “Early Bird Special”
Price
How much buyers pay per ticket.
Capacity
Maximum tickets available of this type:
- Limited capacity – Set a specific number; sales stop when reached
- Unlimited – No cap (use carefully, your venue has physical limits)
Total event capacity is the sum of all ticket type capacities (or unlimited if any type is unlimited).
Sales Window
When this ticket type can be purchased:
- Start date/time – When sales begin
- End date/time – When sales close
Leave blank for “available whenever the event is published.”
Description (Optional)
Additional details about what’s included:
- “Includes access to VIP lounge”
- “Valid for ages 18+”
- “Standing room only”
Reserved Seating
If you’re using seat maps for assigned seating:
- Enable reserved seating for this ticket type
- Link to the appropriate seat map
- Buyers select specific seats during purchase
See Build Seat Maps for seat map setup.
Editing Ticket Types Before Sales
Before any tickets sell, you have complete flexibility:
- Change the name
- Adjust pricing
- Modify capacity
- Update sales windows
- Enable or disable reserved seating
What Locks After Sales Begin
Once at least one ticket of this type is sold, certain fields lock to protect existing orders:
Price
Locked. You can’t change the price on a ticket type that has sales. Buyers paid a specific amount; changing it would create accounting problems.
Alternative: Create a new ticket type with the new price. Optionally, close sales on the old type.
Reserved Seating Mode
Locked. You can’t switch between reserved and general admission after sales. Buyers either picked seats or didn’t, and you can’t change that retroactively.
Alternative: Create a separate ticket type for the other mode.
Linked Seat Map
Locked. If reserved seating is enabled and sales exist, you can’t switch to a different seat map.
What You Can Still Edit After Sales
Capacity
You can increase capacity (release more tickets) or decrease it (down to the number already sold). You can’t set capacity below current sales.
Sales Window End Time
Extend or shorten when sales close. Useful for last-minute extensions or early cutoffs.
Description
Update the description text without affecting existing orders.
Name
Generally editable, but be cautious: buyers may have confirmations with the old name.
Handling Price Changes
Need to change pricing mid-campaign? Here’s the pattern:
- Create a new ticket type with the new price
- Close sales on the old ticket type (set end date to now)
- The new type becomes the active option for buyers
Existing orders keep their original pricing. New buyers see the new price.
Capacity
Overselling Prevention
PlayMetrics prevents selling more tickets than capacity allows. If capacity is 100 and 100 are sold, the ticket type shows as sold out.
Increasing Capacity
If you release more tickets (capacity 100 to 150), 50 more can sell immediately.
Decreasing Capacity
You can only decrease to the number already sold. If 75 are sold, minimum capacity is 75. You can’t “unsell” tickets.
Reserved Seating Requirements
If you want reserved seating:
- Create and publish a seat map first
- When creating the ticket type, enable reserved seating
- Link to your seat map
Reserved seating ticket types require an active seat map. If no maps exist, you’ll be prompted to create one.
Common Mistakes
“I set unlimited capacity but the venue only holds 500”
Be realistic with capacity. Overselling creates real problems even if the system allows unlimited.
“I need to change the price but it’s locked”
Create a new ticket type. You can’t modify prices after sales.
“Reserved seating is grayed out”
You either need to create a seat map first, or tickets have already sold on this type.
What’s Next?
Using reserved seating? Learn how to Build Seat Maps.
