How Tixr’s work on BlizzCon exhibits its gaming technique

After a two-year hiatus, BlizzCon is again for 2026 on the Anaheim Convention Center in Southern California. The celebration of all issues Blizzard Entertainment runs Sept. 12-13, and for the primary time, Tixr is dealing with the conference’s ticketing duties for Activision Blizzard.

SBJ has lengthy lined Tixr’s work in sports activities, equivalent to its current MLS offers with the Earthquakes and the Dynamo. Its rivals in sports activities embody Sports Illustrated Tickets and one other high-profile startup, Jump (the agency that Timberwolves co-owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez based).

But Tixr has a bonus a few of its rivals lack — it has a thriving enterprise in gaming occasions, working with DreamHack for occasions throughout the globe and dealing with different occasions for Riot Games, Supercell and IGN. It additionally handles music occasions, coping with trade juggernauts equivalent to Ticketmaster.

Working amongst so many trade segments “is difficult, especially when you’re building a product that’s nuanced across many different live event industries, and that’s part of the challenge, but it’s also a real differentiator for Tixr,” mentioned CRO Patrick Bradley.

Tixr gained worthwhile expertise forward of BlizzCon by dealing with tickets for the Warcraft thirtieth anniversary tour, which spanned six cities throughout 4 continents in 2025. It was the primary time the agency labored with Blizzard and its dad or mum firm, Activision Blizzard, for an occasion of this scale (Bradley famous Tixr has labored “around” the writer’s video video games at DreamHack, ESL and Esports Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the place Activision Blizzard’s video games make common appearances).

“Because we’re a system that does conduct business globally in one system and also the visual nature of our product, which we can get into, it was really what got them interested in working with us. And then, of course, we showed what we can do, and that really blossomed a relationship that then turned into us working together now on BlizzCon as well,” Bradley mentioned.

Building a basis

BlizzCon is a type of occasions recognized for promoting out inside minutes of tickets happening sale. It’s a packed home day-after-day of the conference, with cosplay contests, esports occasions, panels, big-name acts for concert events (equivalent to Foo Fighters, Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, Linkin Park, Train) and extra.

It’s an occasion Bradley has wished to work on ever since attending it himself.

“I went to BlizzCon for the first time about a decade ago, and I was in the same industry, but in the gaming and pop culture, live events industry at the time. But when I saw BlizzCon, it blew me away,” Bradley mentioned. “It was really obvious. It was the highest levels of a live event experience for this incredible visual world of gaming. So ever since then, I’ve been looking for an opportunity, and taking my role as chief revenue officer of Tixr, and then through good fortune and my network, being introduced to the right people to then be able to work with them has really been an incredible blessing in my career.”

Bradley mentioned one factor that caught Blizzard’s consideration was how Tixr approached dealing with packages for various communities, languages and curiosity ranges for the Warcraft thirtieth anniversary tour. “What we did was offer super fans and influencers and media a place to secure tickets, to be invited to a one-night event in that town, depending on which city it was in from London to Boston and all around the globe,” he mentioned. “We [also] had a beautiful on-brand interface where people could secure tickets, and we used some of our technology like wait-listing and things like that. But that tour was really about, it was almost like a marketing and promotional event tour as much as anything, to really celebrate 30 years with this amazing game.”

One element Tixr launched with commonplace fare, equivalent to a brand new early-bird providing, was integrating ticket gross sales with lodging in a single interface, together with premium experiences and different packages.

“The amount of tickets for this early bird was selected by the client, and it was an amount that they thought was aspirational, but it also gave a lot of people a chance for that first wave,” Bradley mentioned.

And in long-standing BlizzCon custom, these tickets offered out in mere minutes. Bradley recounted how the primary ticket launch transpired in Tixr’s “war room” to handle the method.

“There’s so much fun, obviously, excitement, anxiety and all that stuff because when you do put it on sale, literally at that exact moment, at the top of the hour usually, and in this case, you flip the switch and boom, you’re off to the races,” Bradley mentioned. “The good news is that our platform, which has really become known for handling what we like to call at-scale, big on-sales, that can handle a heavy load. And so, our system handled it really well. And it was really humming. And so to your point in a few minutes, we saw a significant majority of the traffic that was ready to buy, be able to buy in such a short window of time that I really did witness in the war room, that the clients were in awe of the speed in which our system was able to allow fans to simply and easily transact.

“It was awesome.”

Same … however totally different

DreamHack and BlizzCon are occasions of an analogous scale — promoting hundreds of tickets, with a number of early birds lining as much as purchase passes as quickly because the promoting begins. I questioned how operating the ticketing course of for DreamHack, an expo celebrating dozens of video games that visits totally different cities in a 12 months, compares with one thing that’s static in BlizzCon, which focuses on one writer’s video games.

“They’re both some of the largest events in this world globally, right? DreamHack is a touring version, so they do multiple events, they’re very much international, headquartered in Sweden, and we handle events for them globally. So regionally based [events] will be speaking to that more regional audience with the language localization and things of that nature,” Bradley mentioned. “Obviously with Blizzard, it’s a tentpole event, the amount of time between on sale … and the event itself is almost a year. So it’s a real long lead, which allows them to take advantage of technology. Things like built-in payment plans in our system where fans who might card up four VIP tickets plus experiences and that could add up to be a fair amount of money. Our system allows them to pay it over time very easily and very cost-effectively. So, they get to take advantage of some of these built-in tools that maybe an eventgoer might not.”

Another similarity? The video games. “When I was at the Dallas DreamHack show most recently, Blizzard had a really strong presence there, and they’re working with all sorts of events. Whereas BlizzCon is obviously their own brands. So the same, but very different at the same time.”

Celebrations vs. competitions

Tixr’s gaming enterprise is geared towards two kinds of occasions: esports competitions and conventions. Some mix each (as DreamHack and BlizzCon do). Bradley says the corporate is “split down the middle as far as just the number of events that we do that are esports versus more of a convention with esports we’ll do right now.”

A current esports instance is working with OpTic Gaming for an upcoming Call of Duty league event at SMU’s Moody Coliseum, “which would be more in a reserved seating venue, where they’re cheering and watching all day, versus one that has more of a blended mix of entertainment where two or three hours of your day could be in that kind of an esports experience. And then the rest, you’re checking out cosplay, you’re visiting experiences, and it’s just like a convention-style or a pop-culture convention mixed with an esports event.” When it involves BlizzCon, “it’s really both,” as Blizzard could have esports for Overwatch and Hearthstone happening.

Bradley cited Tixr’s sports activities work with MLS and different purchasers with massive arenas and stadiums as an asset in terms of growing a plan of assault for esports occasions.

Bradley additionally shared what he and Tixr have realized about working with gaming occasions that may apply to the enterprise’s full mission.

“The thing that’s important is if it starts at the beginning, when you go on sale, because our ethos and philosophy is that an event really begins at that point long before you’re getting on an airplane or jumping in a car with your friends and driving and checking into your hotel … the event experience really starts with Day 1, which is on sale,” Bradley mentioned.