Australians spend $2.5 billion online in 2015 on tickets to shows, films and events

Australians aged 14 years and over spent an estimated $2.5 billion in 2015 buying tickets to shows, movies and events over the internet – with women spending around $300 million more than men.

The spending patterns, revealed by Roy Morgan Research shows that older showgoers and families together spent three times more than the under-35s.

While the Roy Morgan Research reveals Australians aged 14 years and over spent an estimated $2.5 billion in 2015 buying tickets to shows, movies and events over the internet – with women spending around $300 million more than men.

The spending patterns, revealed by Roy Morgan Research shows that older showgoers and families together spent three times more than the under-35s.

The Roy Morgan Research reveals that while 14-24 year-olds spent $279 million on tickets online last year, that marked only 11% of the overall market. 25-34 year-olds spent a little more: $354 million, or 14% of all dollars.

However, combined, this combined younger age group’s spending made up only a quarter of online ticket sales by value, while Australians aged 50+ clicked to buy $810 million worth of tickets in 2015, almost a third (32%) of the market.

The largest slice of the pie was spent by 35-49 year-olds, who clicked to buy over a $1 billion worth of entertainment tickets in 2015. Of course, rather than just tickets for themselves and perhaps a partner, many in this age bracket may well be making family purchases.

There are also some differences between how much men and women spend - individually or as a group. Overall, almost 250,000 more women than men buy tickets online during an average month - but when men do buy tickets online, they spend around $20 more. However, the higher purchasing incidence among women, across all age groups, more than makes up for their lower average expenditure, and in 2015 56% of online entertainment ticket sales went to women.

Share of $2.5 billion entertainment ticket sales online in 2015 by age and gender

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source, January - December 2015, sample n = 50,276 Australians 14+

Commenting on the findings, Roy Morgan Research Chief Executive Michele Levine explained “one in 15 Australians 14+ buy tickets to shows, movies and events online in an average four weeks - women aged 35-49 are the most common online ticket-buyers (around one in eight), while men aged 14-24 are the least (fewer than one in 25).

“While incidence and population size each play a big part in how much each group contributes to the annual $2.5 billion market, another important factor is which tickets and events these groups prefer - and how much they cost: 14-24 year-olds are the most likely to go to the cinema; more 25-34 year-olds go to rock or pop concerts, the zoo, or exhibitions like home and boat shows; more 35-49 year-olds go to theme parks and sporting events; and more people aged 50-plus go to live theatre and classical concerts, galleries and museums. And perhaps men really need to get out more, being outnumbered by women at nearly all events, including the movies, theatre, concerts, galleries, museums and zoos.

“Event ticketing is one slice of consumers’ discretionary expenditure that has quickly and largely shifted to online. Using Roy Morgan Audiences, event promoters would gain unprecedented daily insight into how their online web and app advertising is reaching and motivating target audiences, while the venues and ticketing agencies themselves can understand and monitor exactly who’s clicked to buy the tickets - all in our privacy-compliant, cookie-free, and data-rich environment.” 

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