More than half of what fans spend on a show goes on everything but the ticket, AEG's Live Effect study finds

The ticket is only the start of it. AEG Global Partnerships, the sponsorship arm of the company behind The O2 in London and the brand deals at Coachella, has published The Live Effect 2026, a study of 12,098 adults who went to a live event in the past 12 months. Its headline finding for fans: more than half of what attendees spend on a show happens outside the cost of admission, on travel, food and drink, hotels and merch.

Four countries, one answer

The first edition, in 2025, only covered the UK. This year AEG surveyed attendees in the US, UK, France and Germany in August 2026, and the answers barely moved from country to country. Fans are spending the money and they do not regret it: 77% said their most recent live event was money well spent, and 79% said they would make the same purchase again.

The feeling is the point. Eighty per cent said the atmosphere of a show can only be experienced in person, and 78% said live events have given them lasting memories.

Why brands care

AEG sells sponsorship, so most of the study is about what that attention is worth to the brands in the room. Its numbers:

• 58% say brands at live events are easier to notice than advertising elsewhere
• 56% say those brands are more likely to stay in their memory
• 74% have made a purchase decision after interacting with a brand at a live event
• 87% have taken some kind of action after seeing a brand there

Paul Samuels, President of Global Partnerships at AEG International, said live entertainment offers "genuine attention, emotional connection and measurable action", which he called increasingly rare. "Consumers aren't simply attending live events; they're investing in them," he said.

The bigger picture

AEG runs some of the biggest rooms in the world: The O2, Accor Arena, adidas Arena and the Bataclan in Paris, Uber Arena in Berlin and Barclays Arena in Hamburg, plus venues in Bangkok, Shanghai and Nagoya, with new arenas planned in Edinburgh, Osaka and Bangkok. Studies like this are how it pitches those rooms to sponsors, so read the brand figures with that in mind.

The fan figures are the useful part. If you have ever spent more on the train, the pre-drinks and the tour tee than on the ticket itself, you are, it turns out, the majority.