Ticket sales for the ongoing Pyeongchang Paralympics surpassed 320,000, breaking the record for tickets sold at a Winter Games, the International Paralympic Committee said Tuesday.

According to the IPC, by Monday evening sales had surpassed the 316,200 sold for the 2014 Sochi Games and nearly doubled the 162,974 tickets sold for the 2006 Turin Games, which the IPC attributed to growing interest in disabled sports.

"It is fantastic news that Pyeongchang 2018 has now sold a record number of tickets to the Paralympic Winter Games," IPC President Andrew Parsons said in a statement.

"After three days of competition, the response from the athletes and Koreans has been outstanding. I now hope (the organizing committee) can increase the sales target further with six days of competition to go," he said.

The games, which started March 9, run through March 18.

But despite the strong figures, attendance at many events such as alpine skiing and biathlon has been spotty, with empty seats being assigned to staff and volunteers.

Tickets sales through Monday reached 320,531 with a turnout of 75 percent, the IPC said. The opening ceremony on Friday was attended by 21,000 people, with 72.5 percent of tickets sold.

The games' organizing committee explained that the discrepancy between ticket sales and attendance arose from the large number of bulk ticket purchases.

Groups such as businesses and schools can buy tickets in large quantities but leave a chunk of seats empty if they do not show up, a phenomenon compounded by the South Korean school year beginning in March.

Toshiro Muto, CEO of the 2020 Tokyo Games organizing committee, said his team had much to learn from the situation.

"It looks like it will be difficult to actually fill the seats even if we do sell tickets. We have to spice up the mood beforehand," he said.