Loyalty used to mean buying again. Fandom means wanting to participate.
The most valuable consumer may not be the one who buys the most frequently.
It may be the one who cares the most.
Deloitte's 2026 Digital Media Trends research puts a number on that difference.
Around 80% of consumers identify as fans of at least one category—from music and sports to gaming, television and film. Fans spend an average of $71 per month on streaming, compared with $56 among non-fans: a 27% difference.
But spending isn't the most interesting part.
49% of fans report sustained engagement with their fandom throughout their lives.
That changes the economics.
A traditional customer relationship is transactional:
need → purchase → repeat.
A fandom relationship is continuous:
identity → participation → discovery → purchase → advocacy.
Fans don't simply consume.
They discuss.
Collect.
Recommend.
Attend.
Wear.
Share.
Create.
And increasingly, they buy things that allow them to express the identity.
Deloitte's research also finds that 55% of fans engage across multiple platforms, rising to around 70% among Gen Z and millennial fans.
This is why the “superfan economy” is becoming bigger than entertainment.
The same mechanism can apply to fashion, sport, beauty, food, travel, gaming, wellness and almost any category with a strong identity component.
The commercial opportunity is not simply to sell the fan another product.
It is to give the fan more ways to belong.
That could mean products.
But it could also mean access, events, communities, experiences, limited editions, conversations or status.
The smartest businesses will stop asking:
“How do we convert our customers?” and start asking:
“How do we turn customers into participants?” Because participation has something advertising cannot easily buy:
memory.