Can you pay to never be ghosted again? 19:46

You are number 52,669 of 52,705 waiting in London,” flashes the message on my phone screen. I’m not in a virtual queue for Beyoncé tickets or the latest trainer drop, I’m nervously waiting to see if I’ve been drafted into The League, a highly selective dating app that describes itself as “for the overly ambitious”. It’s perhaps fitting, then, that the process feels more like applying for a high-level job than trying to find a date. I input the required details: the school I went to (a bog-standard comprehensive) and my modest career history – all of which must be verified by LinkedIn – alongside my hobbies, interests and nearest airport. I’m not holding out hope; from the grilling I receive as I craft my profile (‘Am I a rule follower or rule breaker?’) to the stern reminders not to be a ‘flake’, it’s clear that members of The League are held to a high standard. To my surprise, I wake the next day to find I’ve been accepted. A moderator has deemed me worthy of whoever awaits behind the velvet rope, and the validation, as well as the relief, is instant.

Premier dating services like The League, founded in 2015, have grown rapidly in the past decade as more and more singles find themselves willing to pay for the promise of an ‘elite’ pool of suitors, whether that’s based on income, status or education. The most high-profile is Raya, a once invite-only app that reportedly counted Lizzo and Channing Tatum among its users. With a notoriously vague yet scrupulous screening process, its exclusivity has seen people offering to buy referrals from strangers online for hundreds of pounds. Then there’s Inner Circle, which pairs like-minded profiles and promises users they can “date better” for a fee of £39.99 a month. Toffee, branded the world’s first dating app for the privately educated, launched in 2018 but shuttered in 2022 citing poor user retention. Co-founder and former CEO Lydia Hoey insisted the app was meant to “connect people with shared values and experiences” rather than encourage social division. By contrast, Luxy touts itself as a “millionaires’ matchmaker”, having moved on from its original strapline of ‘Tinder, minus the poor people.’ Only 10-15% of Luxy applicants are accepted, and the company claims 60% of its active members have a verified annual income of over £175,000.