A new study of more than 5,000 people in three countries shows US fans reporting higher rates of fraud, missed events and inflated resale purchases than their peers abroad.Fans in the US place more emotional value on live events but they also run into more trouble getting through the door, according to Future of Ticketing Report: The Live Equation 2030, a new study from the ticket resale marketplace Tixel.
The report draws on a Kantar-run survey of 5,107 adults across the US, UK and Australia, including 1,522 Americans.Each participant had bought tickets for, attended or tried to attend a live event within the prior 12 months.
It’s important to note that Tixel’s business centers on verified resale with price caps, so the findings are best read as one company’s take on a market it wants to reshape.Even so, the gaps between countries are wide.
About 34% of US respondents said they had wanted or tried to go to a ticketed event in the past year and never made it, compared with 26% in Australia and 20% in the UK.Roughly 29% of Americans reported running into a fake, invalid or nonexistent ticket during that period, and 56% said they had at some point paid a resale price they knew was significantly inflated.
Gen Z respondents fared worst, with 46% of those in the US reporting ticket fraud over the past year and 69% saying they had previously overpaid on resale.Nothing in the data points to weak demand as the source of the frustration.
About 82% of US fans described live events as one of the best ways to bond with friends and family, and 78% called them a form of emotional release that goes beyond ordinary entertainment.When a ticket they wanted turned out to cost far more than expected, 67% said they would look for another route into the show.
That determination appears to leave them exposed.Two-thirds of US respondents had bought a resale ticket before, the highest share among the three markets, and 75% believed bots or brokers were snapping u...