Most tickets sold for a Paralympic Games

A record 2.7 million tickets were sold for the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, UK, making it the first sell-out in the 52-year history of the event. The original allocation of 2.5 million tickets sold out during the Games, with another 100,000 tickets made available from contingency as seating plans were fine-tuned, and a further 100,000 non-event tickets were released to allow people access to the Olympic Park. By comparison, the 2008 Games in Beijing, China, were witnessed by a then-record 1.8 million ticket-holders, although organizers reportedly had to give away a further 1.8 million tickets to fill the venues in Beijing. The London Paralympic Games 2012 ran from 29 August to 9 September 2012. The first Paralympics were held in Rome, Italy, in 1960, although the event was inspired by the Stoke Mandeville Games - a sports contest for British World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries organised by Stoke Mandeville Hospital’s Dr Ludwig Guttmann in 1948.