Best of Times, Worst of Times: How superfans drive K-shaped consumption in live entertainment

Research evidence excerpt

Best of Times, Worst of Times: How superfans drive K-shaped consumption in live entertainment

2 July 2026

U.S. Entertainment

Best of Times, Worst of Times: How superfans drive K-shaped

consumption in live entertainment

”It was the best of times, it was the worst of times". The famous opening line of Charles Ian Moore

+1 917 344 8434 Dickens' 'A Tale of Two Cities' captures a period of contradiction: the French aristocracy

ian.moore@bernsteinsg.com indulging in opulence and privilege, the peasantry experiencing poverty and oppression.

While 2026 is thankfully not 18th century France, shifting class dynamics remain more

Nosher Ali Khan topical than ever, from the US K-shaped economy to the squeezed Chinese middle class.

+1 917 344 8578

nosher-ali.khan@bernsteinsg.com In this note, we examine how that same K-shape is reshaping live entertainment and why a

concentrated core of high-quality, engaged superfans is driving it.

US consumer spending has concentrated at the top of the income distribution, and

discretionary experiential spending is exactly where the gap is widest. The top income

quintile out-spends the bottom by~4x on total outlays, but by ~12x on entertainment

fees and admissions (Exhibit 1-Exhibit 2). Crucially, the same shape appears within the

live category itself: the top 1% of shows has grown its share of total live gross sales

from 24.9% to 33.1% since 2019 (Exhibit 3). The premium tier can take price because

its supply is limited: the top 1% of shows already sells through at 96-99% of capacity. A

K-shaped consumer economy is feeding a K-shaped live entertainment market, in which

a concentrated, high-spending upper echelon pulls away from a softening middle and

bottom.

The superfan is what produces that shape. We define the superfan as the high-quality,