Nearly half the tickets for Bruno Mars’ three sold-out Hawaii concerts were purchased by people outside of Hawaii, according to the Blaisdell box office and Ticketmaster.

By using credit card ZIP codes, Ticketmaster found that 42 percent of the 17,000 tickets snapped up Monday were purchased by people on the mainland and in Canada. The remaining

58 percent were bought by fans with Hawaii ZIP codes.

The vast majority of the tickets sold went to people who didn’t stand in line. Only 6 percent of the tickets were bought at the box office, Ticketmaster said.

Phone purchases accounted for 47 percent and online purchases for 46 percent. Retail outlets sold just 1 percent of the tickets.

Ticket sales started at 9 a.m., and by 11 a.m. the sellout had set a Blaisdell record.

Fans were able to buy more tickets than expected, though.

A previously announced limit of eight per household was changed to eight per performance for the April 18 and 19 shows, said John Fuhrmann, events and services administrator for the Blaisdell complex.

The change, which was dictated by mainland promoter AEG Live, was made just hours before the box office opened and meant that individuals could walk away with 16 tickets, Fuhrmann said. The original limit was reinstated, however, when tickets went on sale for the third performance on April 21, he said.

The Blaisdell typically limits tickets to four per person, Fuhrmann said.

Blaisdell officials had advised the public that standing in line to buy tickets was their worst option. Still, several hundred people waited at the box office with priority tokens that had been handed out randomly. Some waited for their turn while using digital devices to buy online.

"The Internet sells tickets much faster," Fuhrmann said. "A person walks up to the box office and says hello, and I have probably sold seven rows in that amount of time."

Starting ticket sales on a weekday and especially a Monday was unusual, Fuhrmann said. But Mars and AEG Live wanted to take advantage of the Hawaii-born singer’s halftime performance at the Super Bowl, which was held Sunday. Tickets for 40 performances during his spring-summer tour all went on sale Monday.

Hawaii was the last city to open its box office.

Tom Moffatt, the local promoter working with AEG Live, said no one received special treatment when tickets went on sale. There were no blocks of seats offered, Moffatt said.

"As far as I know, everyone who goes either to the box office or goes online or calls has the same chance," Moffatt said. "Whoever gets there first gets the tickets."

Moffatt hadn’t experienced a sellout like he saw Monday in his 50-year career, but said he wouldn’t mind a return to the protocol of standing in lines.

"I would like to go back to the old-fashioned system where they line up and that’s how the tickets are distributed," he said. "But nowadays it has to be through a computer ticket sales. It reaches a lot more people."

A fourth concert has not been announced, and as recently as Wednesday, Moffatt was being told that it would not happen.