Today’s guest post comes from Rob Salkowitz, author of Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture, columnist at ICv2 and specialist in the evolution of media and entertainment. Rob will be participating in four panels at San Diego Comic Con, including the “Future of Geek“, where he will be presenting the Eventbrite survey data from this post. 

With fandom conventions setting attendance records all over the country, it’s no secret that gaming, anime, and pop culture cons are big business. Eventbrite’s research sized the US fan-event market at $600M in gross ticket sales in 2013. But who are the fans, what kinds of experiences draw them, and what opportunities does the surge of fan enthusiasm hold for retailers, media companies, and organizers?

In June 2014, Eventbrite conducted an online survey of more than 2,600 people who purchased tickets to one of the hundreds of fandom events on their platform in the past two years. The survey consisted of 18 questions across a range of topics that provided some important insights into this vibrant, dynamic, and highly influential audience.

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For more insights, see the full report here.