Event Discovery Statistics: How People Find Events and Decide to Buy

Getting an event in front of someone is only part of selling the ticket. They still need a reason to care, enough detail to understand the experience and confidence that it will deliver. This collection brings together independent studies and Loopyah's research on where people find events, what influences their decisions and how organizers reach them. It covers audiences in the US, UK and Australia, with each study's scope kept clear.

Key takeaways

The US attendee findings below come from the Event Attendee Insights Report 2025/2026. External studies add evidence from specific locations and event categories:

• 65% of Loopyah's US respondents selected social media posts or ads among their usual event discovery sources.

• 56.4% of the same US sample selected word of mouth or friends.

• 44% of London adults used social media to hear about arts and cultural events, according to Centre for London's Arts for All, published in 2025 using 2024 polling.

• 48% of surveyed UK immersive-experience attendees used Instagram to find experiences, according to the Immersive Experience Network's Immersive Audiences Report 2024.

• 59% of Australians aged 16-25 agreed they wanted to attend more local Australian music but did not know where to find information about it, according to The Push's Young Australian Music Audiences 2026.

• 58% of Loopyah's US respondents said they discover events through influencer or creator posts very often or sometimes.

• 45.6% of the same US sample selected friends attending as something in online event content most likely to make them click "buy".

These percentages describe answers to different survey questions. They aren't shares of ticket sales, website traffic or advertising revenue, and they cannot be combined into a global event discovery ranking.

How do people discover upcoming events?

In the Event Attendee Insights Report 2025/2026, social posts and ads were the most frequently selected discovery source, followed by friends and word of mouth. Search, ticketing sites and newsletters also reached substantial shares of respondents.

Respondents selected up to three sources they usually rely on to discover upcoming events.

Source: Event Attendee Insights Report 2025/2026.

The complete results were:

• Social media posts or ads: 65%, 325 respondents.

• Word of mouth or friends: 56.4%, 282 respondents.

• Search engines such as Google: 37.6%, 188 respondents.

• Ticketing websites or apps: 28.8%, 144 respondents.

• Event or venue newsletters: 26.6%, 133 respondents.

• Local news or magazines: 21.6%, 108 respondents.

• Influencers or creators: 15%, 75 respondents.

• AI search engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Grok: 3.8%, 19 respondents.

The social media answer combines organic posts and paid ads. It cannot tell you which one generated more discovery. Similarly, the newsletter answer covers event and venue newsletters together, rather than every kind of email someone might receive.

For an operator, the useful finding is that people named several ways of hearing about events. You can use this to challenge a promotion plan that depends entirely on one channel. You can't use it to split your budget in these exact proportions.

How do Londoners hear about arts and cultural events?

Savanta's 2024 online poll covered 1,579 London adults, with demographic and voting weights. Social media led at 44%, followed by word of mouth at 39% and online search at 37%. Public-transport advertising reached 24%, print media 23%, and local television, radio or podcasts 21%.

Social media discovery varied by age:

Source: Centre for London, Arts for All, April 2025, pages 37-39. Savanta, 2024 polling; weighted sample of 1,579 London adults. Age-group sample sizes are not disclosed beside the chart.

Among those aged 55+, 48% used word of mouth. This research includes free cultural activities; it isn't limited to ticket purchasers.

Can people want to attend but still struggle to find events?

The Push's Young Australian Music Audiences 2026 found that 59% of Australians aged 16-25 agreed they wanted to attend more local Australian music but did not know where to find information about it. Agreement was 64% among ages 18-25, compared with 40% among ages 16-17.

YouGov surveyed 1,025 people online on 11-24 May 2026. Results were weighted by age, gender and region; age-group sample sizes were not disclosed. The question measures an information gap among young Australians, not missed purchases or demand for every event category.

How much event discovery comes through AI search?

In the Event Attendee Insights Report 2025/2026, 3.8% selected AI search engines as one of their usual discovery sources, compared with 37.6% for search engines such as Google.

This is a November 2025 snapshot. It does not establish AI search adoption today, its rate of growth, or how many ticket purchases followed an AI recommendation. The question measured reported reliance, not visits recorded by an analytics tool.

Which platforms influence event attendance decisions?

Facebook was the most selected platform for attendance influence in the Event Attendee Insights Report 2025/2026. Google Search, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok followed.

Respondents selected up to three platforms that most influence their decision to attend events.

Source: Event Attendee Insights Report 2025/2026.

The full platform breakdown was:

• Facebook: 52.8%, 264 respondents.

• Google Search: 40.6%, 203 respondents.

• YouTube: 39.2%, 196 respondents.

• Instagram: 37.6%, 188 respondents.

• TikTok: 30.6%, 153 respondents.

• X, listed as X or Twitter: 14.8%, 74 respondents.

• Reddit: 10.2%, 51 respondents.

• Snapchat: 9.2%, 46 respondents.

• Other: 5.6%, 28 respondents.

These are results for this sample across event types. They don't show which platform works best for your city, genre or audience age group. They also don't separate paid exposure from organic content, or measure the cost of acquiring a ticket buyer.

Google's 40.6% here and search engines' 37.6% in the previous section answer different questions. One asks about influence on attendance; the other asks about usual discovery sources. Neither is an error, and neither should be substituted for the other when citing the research.

Which platforms help audiences find immersive experiences?

The Immersive Experience Network's 2024 report, researched by Savanta, surveyed 2,000 people in the UK who had attended an immersive experience in the previous 12 months. The category includes immersive theatre and art, escape rooms and themed attractions. Its published social-discovery results were:

Source: Immersive Experience Network and Savanta, Immersive Audiences Report 2024, published 24 June 2024. Study sample: 2,000 recent immersive-experience attendees. Responses overlap. The public summary does not disclose fieldwork dates, weighting or a separate question base.

Instagram leads this list. It answers a different question for a different audience from Loopyah's Facebook-led attendance-influence finding, so the results don't establish a change in platform rankings over time.

What does broader entertainment research show?

Deloitte's Digital Media Trends 2026 found that 52% of US entertainment fans agreed social media was their primary way of learning about new TV shows, films, music, games or events. Agreement reached 73% among Gen Z fans and 68% among millennial fans.

This is broader entertainment discovery, with events included in a combined question. Figure 2 uses 2,977 self-identified fans from a survey of 3,575 US consumers, fielded in October-November 2025 and weighted to the US Census. It does not isolate event discovery or ticket purchases.

How often do people discover events through creators?

In the Event Attendee Insights Report 2025/2026, 58% said they discover events through influencer or creator posts at least sometimes. Here is the full frequency breakdown:

Source: Event Attendee Insights Report 2025/2026.

The 58% combines "very often" and "sometimes". It does not mean that creators generate 58% of event discoveries.

Why does this differ from the 15% selecting creators in the earlier discovery question? There, people picked up to three sources they usually rely on. Here, everyone rated how often they encounter events through creator posts. Someone can occasionally discover an event through a creator without naming creators among their usual sources.

That distinction matters when you're considering event influencer marketing. Exposure to a recommendation and reliance on that recommendation are different things to ask about.

What event content makes people want to click "buy"?

Friends attending was the most frequently selected answer. Visuals, offers and reviews were also common choices. A creator recommendation was selected less often than any of those options.

Respondents selected the things in online event content most likely to make them click "buy". More than one answer was allowed:

Source: Event Attendee Insights Report 2025/2026.

These are stated motivations. We didn't run campaigns with each content type and compare their sales. In particular, the near-identical shares for visuals and limited-time offers don't establish a meaningful difference in performance.

The finding about friends also isn't a count of referrals or group bookings. It tells you that seeing friends attend was a commonly selected reason to act on event content. Our guide to how friends influence event attendance explores that buying context in more detail.

What matters when people decide to attend?

Discovery gets an event considered. The next question is whether the experience is worth choosing. In the Event Attendee Insights Report 2025/2026, these were the shares who rated each attendance factor "very important":

• Lineup, performers or speakers: 67%.

• Price: 50.4%.

• Location: 47.2%.

• Ticket security: 44.2%.

• Accessibility or convenience: 41.4%.

• Event reputation: 32.6%.

• Originality or uniqueness: 25.2%.

• Friends participating: 23.2%.

• Sustainability or ethics: 21.8%.

• Influencers participating: 15.4%.

Respondents could rate several factors very important. These figures measure stated priorities, not a tested increase in ticket sales.

For your event page, make the main experience easy to understand. People should be able to identify the programme, price and location without piecing them together from several posts. The earlier finding about friends attending concerns a reason to click "buy" on online content; this question asks about the importance of attendance factors more broadly.

What could encourage an earlier ticket purchase?

The Event Attendee Insights Report 2025/2026 also asked what would motivate people to buy earlier:

• Early-bird discounts: 67.6%.

• Fear of a sell-out: 45.2%.

• Better refund policies: 33.8%.

• Payment plans: 31.4%.

• Limited VIP access: 25%.

• Ability to resell if needed: 22.8%.

Multiple answers were allowed. These are stated preferences, so the numbers don't tell you how much earlier a person would buy or how much revenue an offer would produce. Use them to decide which parts of an existing offer deserve a clearer explanation, then assess the results against your own sales and costs.

What helps people trust an event they discover?

In the Worth It Event Index US 2026, online reviews, the venue, friends' reviews and videos of previous events were the most selected signs that an event would deliver.

Respondents could select more than one reason to trust an event:

Source: Worth It Event Index US 2026.

This question concerns trust in delivery. It doesn't rank where people first heard about an event. A social post may introduce an unfamiliar event, while a review or previous-event video helps someone decide whether to believe its promise. That is a possible journey, not a sequence measured by these surveys.

How clear is the experience before someone buys?

The Worth It Event Index US 2026 also asked how clearly people understood the experience they would get before buying a ticket:

Source: Worth It Event Index US 2026.

Knowing the event's name is different from knowing what the experience will be like. Make the programme, location, timing and what's included easy to find after someone clicks through. This question measures perceived clarity; it does not show how many unclear visitors abandoned a purchase.

Which channels do event organizers use?

The Event Creators Survey 2026 covers organizers of paid and free ticketed events. Here are the channels they use to promote them:

Organizers could select more than one promotion channel.

Source: Event Creators Survey 2026.

What makes attendance growth difficult for organizers?

In the Event Creators Survey 2026, reaching beyond existing followers was the most selected answer for the single biggest attendance-growth challenge, followed by converting interest into purchases:

Source: Event Creators Survey 2026.

A promotion plan needs to address the problem your event has. If people already know the event but hesitate to buy, more impressions alone won't explain what's holding them back. If your audience keeps coming from the same small group, improving the event page still leaves you needing a way to reach new people.

The organizer and attendee answers describe different populations and use different wording. For example, the gap between organizers selecting SEO or Google and consumers selecting search engines does not measure an unmet market or prove that organizers underinvest in search. The survey didn't ask for their spending by channel.

What these findings mean for your event marketing

Social media and friends were the most common discovery sources in the Event Attendee Insights Report 2025/2026. Search, newsletters and ticketing sites also appeared in respondents' answers. Once people considered buying, friends attending, visuals and reviews were frequently selected motivations.

For your own event, keep the questions separate: where people hear about it, what helps them judge it, and what gets them to buy. Use these figures as context, then judge your spending against your own ticket sales and costs. The event marketing playbook covers how to turn that thinking into a promotion plan.