Ticketek has stopped half a billion bots from gaming the system as four million people tried their luck securing tickets to the Australian leg of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour.

Pre-sale tickets for the three Sydney shows sold out at 2pm on Wednesday while pre-sale seats for the two Melbourne shows were gone just after 4pm, a Ticketek spokesman confirmed.

More than half a billion bots were also repelled from the ticketing site.

Her fans were trying a range of strategies to win a booking.

Tweet from @theswiftmuseum

Antonia Touma’s dining table was laden with six different devices, each fully charged and placed in the queue for tickets since 6am on Wednesday.

“We started planning it all yesterday. We had group chats, texting when we need to do this, what needs to be done, whose laptops we’re using, what devices we connected,” she told AAP.

“Six devices ups our chances. We have to stay hopeful.”

Fellow Swiftie Amite Skinner was also caught up in the search for tickets.

Her sister, brother-in-law and nephew were all caught in hours-long virtual ticket queues for the $900-a-seat VIP package.

“I have always loved Taylor Swift. She has only been here once before and I sadly missed out,” she said.

“The experience this morning has been super stressful. I feel absolutely exhausted and deflated so far. It’ll all change if I end up getting tickets.”

For Ms Skinner, the waiting game paid off, securing four tickets just after midday.

Swift will perform two shows in Melbourne and three in Sydney during February.

Unprecedented demand for tickets led Victoria to declare Swift’s concerts as major events on Tuesday, in an effort to limit ticket scalping, a move quickly followed in New South Wales.

Victorian Tourism, Sport and Major Events Minister Steve Dimopoulos confirmed tickets bought and resold before the declaration were not covered by the state’s anti-scalping rules.

“But that was only a small number,” he told Melbourne radio station 3AW on Wednesday.

Swift announced last week she was bringing her tour to Australia, but Mr Dimopoulos insisted the Victorian government had acted quickly to guard against ticket gouging and had to follow a process.

“We worked with the promoter, so Frontier in this case, and to be honest we did it as soon as they asked,” he said.

The arrival of Swift isn’t an invitation for ticket scalpers to go wild, the NSW treasurer said.

“The reality is Taylor Swift’s coming to Sydney is fantastic for NSW, many people are currently trying to get tickets, a lot of them won’t do that, we hope they shake it off,” Daniel Mookhey told reporters.

For those fans who missed out on pre-sale tickets, general sales open to the public on Friday.

-AAP