ELI5: How do ticket-buying bots purchase concert tickets so quickly?

Ticket-buying bots purchase concert tickets so quickly because they are computer programs designed to do all the clicking, typing, and paying in a tiny fraction of a second, far faster than any human hands can move.

Imagine a famous toy store opens its doors on Saturday morning, but there is only one golden toy on the shelf.

If you want it, you have to:

• Put on your shoes and run to the store.


• Search the aisles to find the toy.


• Pull your wallet out of your pocket.


• Count your coins and hand them to the cashier.

• The robot doesn't walk; it zooms straight to the shelf instantly.
• It already knows the exact spot where the toy sits.
• It has the payment card glued to its hand and taps the register before you can even open the front door.

While you are waiting for the page to load, reading the seat numbers, and carefully typing your name and credit card numbers, the bot does all of those steps in the blink of an eye. In fact, a single person can turn on hundreds of these bots at the exact same second.

It is like sending an army of invisible, lightning-fast runners to buy every golden toy in the store before any regular kid can even take their first step inside.