Seoul, Jan. 27 -- Fan club presales for BTS' upcoming "Arirang" world tour kicked off Thursday, and within moments more than 100,000 fans flooded into the waiting queue. All seats for three concerts in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, in April sold out almost instantly, with anticipation high for the group's first such tour in nearly four years.

With competition fierce, even among official fan club members, many BTS fans found themselves edged out by fractions of a second. While some secured tickets, others were pushed deep into the waiting line, with tens of thousands in front of them, underscoring both BTS' enduring demand and the increasingly punishing reality of K-pop ticketing.

The difficulty of securing tickets was matched by sticker sh...