Research & Insights
State of Fan Data
2026
The definitive data report on fan behavior, spending, and identity across music, sports, esports, fan commerce, and streaming.
Adam Jones, CEO & Founder, revolution.fan / TKN Holdings Inc.
STATE OF
FAN DATA
2026
The definitive data report on fan behavior, spending, and identity
Key Findings
3.2x
higher LTV for fans active across 3+ verticals vs. single-vertical
$247
average annual total fan spend for cross-vertical fans
68%
of fans would share more data if directly compensated
$55B
esports market projected by 2035. But fan data infrastructure barely exists
130x
cheaper CPM reaching targeted music fans via revolution.fan vs. Google Display
$0
paid to fans for their cross-vertical data today. Until revolution.fan
What's Inside
Eight sections. Five verticals.
One infrastructure thesis.
Section 1
Music & Live Events
Four fan tiers, genre affinity as a targeting signal, and why superfans (12% of the base) drive 47% of revenue.
Section 2
Sports & Athletics
$92B US spectator market, seasonal spending patterns, and why the season ticket holder is the most undermonetized data asset in sports.
Section 3
Esports & Gaming
The esports audience is enormous, young, and high-spending on digital goods. Yet nearly invisible to traditional research infrastructure.
Section 4
Fan Commerce
The collector segment spends 4.8x more than casual buyers. Live stream tipping is the strongest predictor of overall merch spend we found.
Section 5
Streaming & Digital
67% of engaged fans run Spotify alongside at least one other platform. The full cross-platform profile is invisible to any single data team.
Section 6
Cross-Vertical Findings
The Vertical Overlap Matrix: 91% of esports fans are active streaming consumers. 61% of music fans also spend on fan commerce. None of it is queryable anywhere else.
Section 7
Implications for Brands & Labels
Tactical data strategy for music labels, sports teams, esports operators, and multi-property sponsors. Includes specific conversion and CPM benchmarks.
Section 8
The Infrastructure Problem Nobody Else Is Solving
Why Datarade, Salesforce Fan 360, Spotify, and Braze cannot solve the cross-vertical identity problem. Plus five architectural reasons this platform can.
Methodology
Three data sources.
One standard.
n=2,400 original survey (US, UK, Canada, Australia)
First-party platform data, k-anonymized (k=5)
9 cited external sources (IMARC, Newzoo, Sportico, Deloitte, Grand View Research)
Patent-pending data architecture
About the Author
Adam Jones
CEO & Founder, revolution.fan / TKN Holdings Inc.
Adam Jones is the CEO and Founder of TKN Holdings Inc. and the creator of revolution.fan, a blockchain-native fan commerce platform and data marketplace. This report draws on first-party data from the revolution.fan platform, original survey research commissioned by TKN Holdings, and publicly available industry sources. All platform data was collected under the revolution.fan FanConsent specification and k-anonymized (k=5) before inclusion.
The Data Behind the Report
Every number in this report is queryable.
The fan profiles, vertical overlap data, and behavioral signals described in this report are live in the revolution.fan data marketplace. No account required to browse.