Event Statistics 2026: Attendance, No-Show and Show-Up Rates for Free, Paid and Virtual Events

Key takeaways

• There is no single "average event show rate". Free in-person events have a median no-show of about 28%, paid events about 17%, across 1,070+ events.[1]
• Single-session webinars convert about 40% to 49% of registrants to live attendees, depending on the platform.[2][3][4]
• No credible public benchmark exists for unique attendance at multi-day virtual summits.
• Inside the same event, paying guests attend only 2 to 4 points more reliably than comped guests.[5] Event design drives most of the free-vs-paid gap.
• Several of the most-quoted numbers trace to nothing: the 98% SMS open rate, "40% to 60% free-event no-shows" and Wallet-pass attendance lifts.

There is no single average event show rate. The number depends on the format, the price, the audience and, above all, what's being divided by what. A 72% free-event check-in rate and a 40% webinar attendance rate can both be accurate, and comparing them tells you nothing.

So this roundup gives one table per format, with the sample, date and denominator for each figure. Platform data and surveys are labelled separately. At the end, we list the popular numbers we couldn't trace to anything, and set our own operating ranges apart from the published data.

How to read an attendance statistic

Check five things before you use any number below:

1. Numerator. Badge scans, live joins, or live joins plus replays?
2. Denominator. Registrations, tickets, unique people or "expected attendees"?
3. Median or average. A few large events can drag an average far from the typical one.
4. Audience. A house list of members or a cold paid-social audience?
5. Stat type. Measured platform data, or a survey of what people say?

A no-show rate is just 100% minus the attendance rate, as long as both use the same denominator. They often don't.

In-person events: free vs paid

Statistic	Figure	Sample and date
Median no-show, all live events	~20%	1,070+ events, PheedLoop, Apr 2026[1]
Median no-show, free events	~28%	389 free events, same dataset[1]
Median no-show, paid events	~17%	683 paid events, same dataset[1]
Median no-show by size	10–49: ~32%; 50–149: ~23%; 150+: ~19%; small free: ~37%	Same dataset[1]
Paying vs comped guests, same event	Paying guests +2 to 4 points; better in 57–65% of events	195 mixed-ticket events, May 2026, "directional"[5]
Registration-flow completion	Free ~96%; paid ~86% (checkout friction, not ad conversion)	860+ events[5]
Attendance by lead time, free vs paid	Free 28.2–59.3%; paid 72.8–81.6% across bands	216,282 registrations, 467 events, Sept 2026[6]
Free executive B2B events	VIP and sport 86%; executive dinners 70%; vendor-owned conferences 19%	191 events, 13,155 registrations, Feb 2025–Mar 2026[7]
Practitioner-led conferences	22% cancel ahead; 40% no-show; 38% attend	Same report[7]
Turnout, one check-in vendor	Free 55.34%; paid 87.33%	Just Attend, 2022–2024, event count not disclosed[8]
Average attendance, mature organizers	"52%" stated; its own 269 ÷ 412 averages give ~65%	Bizzabo, Mar 2026, counts not disclosed[9]

Platform data unless marked. PheedLoop measures no-show against expected attendees, which can include speakers and non-registrants.

PheedLoop is the strongest dataset here, with a defined denominator and a large sample. Its follow-up finding matters most: the big free-vs-paid gap is mostly between events, not between people. Paid events tend to have a defined audience and a clearer promise. We cover what that means for pricing in free vs paid event tickets.

Clutch's data is a useful reminder of how much format matters even when every event is free: from 86% for VIP and sport hospitality down to 19% for vendor-owned conferences.[7]

Bizzabo's figure is in the table only as a warning. Its stated 52% and its own averages don't reconcile, and it doesn't say why.

Webinars

Statistic	Figure	Sample and date
Average live attendance	40% in 2025 (33% in 2024)	26,190 single-session webinars, 522 B2B orgs, Goldcast 2026[2]
By weekday	Mon 47.2%, Fri 46.9%, Thu 38.7%; Mon and Fri audiences are much smaller	Same report[2]
Replay	On-demand is 15.9% of viewership; 2.62% of registrants watch only on demand	Same report[2]
Live show-up rate	47.7% in 2025 (48.9% in 2024); the report also cites 51.3% unreconciled	33,786 sessions, 7.06M registrations, Livestorm, Sept 2026[3]
Best weekday	Tuesday, 51.7%	Same report[3]
Watch time	26 minutes of a typical 68-minute session	Same report[3]
Live vs live or replay	49% live; 57% live or replay; 24% of attendees replay-only	2,000+ webinars, Jan 2023–Aug 2026, ~70% European B2B, Univid[4]
Why no-shows missed it	68% cite a scheduling conflict; 30% say a last-minute reminder helps	Survey of 1,000 attendees, Zoom, Aug 2026[10]
Average attendance (survey plus platform)	"58%" stated; its own 154 ÷ 308 gives 50%	TwentyThree 2026[11]

Live attendees divided by registrants unless marked. Mostly B2B and largely house-list or organic audiences.

The three platform reports that publish a method (Goldcast, Livestorm, Univid) land between 40% and 49% live. That's the defensible webinar range. The audiences are mostly B2B and largely warm, so cold paid-traffic webinars should expect less. Our webinar funnel guide covers that version.

Virtual summits and multi-day events: the missing benchmark

We found no published figure for the share of unique registrants who attend a multi-day virtual summit. Not one report we checked separates unique attendees from session views across days.

Statistic	Figure	Sample and date
Average event length	11.8 hours across 7.5 sessions; 85% of sessions 60 minutes or shorter	Bizzabo platform data, Mar 2026[9]
Creators whose events draw more than 50% attendance	59% of top-10% creators vs 33% of others	682 creators, Circle, 2024 (about two years old)[12]

None of these is a summit show rate.

If you run a summit, measure unique registrants who attended at least one live session, divided by unique registrants, then report each day separately. That's the number other promoters can't give you.

Registration timing and promo windows

• 49.6% of webinar registrations land in the final week and 15.3% on the day.[3]
• Within the same event, late registrants attend almost as reliably as early ones: a median gap of 0.6 points across 374 events. Free registrations came a median 25 days later than paid ones.[6]
• 43% of conference-goers register within the four weeks before the event.[13]
• 57% of US music-event tickets sold in 2024 (year to date) were bought a week or less before the show, with a typical purchase 18.5 days ahead (sample not stated).[14]
• The top 1,000 webinars by attendance had a 13-day median promotion window, against 9 days for the rest. That ranks by attendance count, not rate.[10]

The short version: people register late, and late registrants aren't flakier. Our event reminder schedule turns that into a promo calendar.

What event pros say (surveys)

Statistic	Figure	Sample and date
Organizers reporting an attendance increase	57%	1,500+ organizers and attendees, Nov 2024, Bizzabo[15]
Multi-format marketers saying in-person drove the most revenue	66%; 88% call events a key revenue driver	1,058 US marketers, Jan–Feb 2025, Splash[16]
In-person attendance vs pre-pandemic	49% higher, 34% lower, 16% the same	80 event professionals, Sept 2025, PCMA/Convene[17]

Opinion data. Useful for direction, not as outcomes.

Reminders: what the experiments show

Statistic	Figure	Sample and date
SMS click-through	12.39% campaigns; 20.34% automations	246M+ campaign sends, 27,000+ brands, 2025, Omnisend[18]
SMS click-rate bands (US)	Great 14.6%+; good 8.9–14.5%; unsubscribe great under 0.5%	Klaviyo customers, sample not stated[19]
Email, all industries	Open 35.63%; click 2.62%	Mailchimp, data Dec 2023; opens inflated by Apple Mail Privacy Protection[20]

Ecommerce and general marketing data, not event reminders. Use as a click sanity check.

Study	Result
One extra personal text on top of automated email and SMS, 293 RSVPs, 2021	56.16% vs 55.78%; no effect (p=0.947)[21]
Personal call or text confirmation vs email-only, volunteer events, 2019	About +51% relative attendance[22]
Text 5 minutes before an in-person conference, 211 learners, cluster RCT	49.5% vs 44.4%; +4.0 points adjusted[23]
Healthcare text notifications, meta-analysis, 2016	67% vs 54% attended; multiple notifications beat one[24]
Healthcare text reminders, Cochrane review, 2013	78.6% vs 67.8% attended; 7 studies, 5,841 people[25]
$100 refundable deposit vs prior free RSVP, one breakfast event	50 of 55 attended vs 38 of 84[26]

Small samples and adjacent settings. Healthcare studies are context, not event benchmarks.

The pattern: a timely reminder helps a little, more of the same adds nothing once a working cadence exists, and personal contact or a small commitment moves the number most.

Numbers we could not substantiate

Claim	Where it leads	Verdict
"98% of texts are opened, 90% within 3 minutes"	Mobilesquared's 2010 white paper. Mobilesquared now says neither figure reflects today and suggests about 55% are read.[28] Twilio says SMS opens can't be measured, then repeats 98% in the same post.[29]	Origin found and disowned
"Free events 40–60% no-shows; paid 90–97% attendance"	Event Tech Live cites Eventtia for the range and gives nothing for 90–97%.[30] Eventtia cites other vendor roundups.[31]	No study found
"65% in-person; about 50% free; 70–90% paid"	Eventbrite's own "ballparks", no sample.[32] An older Eventbrite post cites a "survey of free event creators" for up to 50% dropout, with no sample or date.[33]	Guidance, not data
"A $5 ticket cuts no-shows to 15%; $10+ below 5%"	One organizer's experience, Localist, 2021.[34]	Anecdote
"Wallet passes cut no-shows up to 30%"	Passmint, with no operators, data or control.[35] Google's case studies report adoption, sales and entry speed (Oztix: 40% of Android users saved tickets), never attendance.[36]	No evidence of a lift

We followed each claim back as far as the sources allowed.

A Wallet pass does have real uses: lock-screen timing, updates after issue and a record of who saved the ticket. We cover those, without the lift claim, in our Apple and Google Wallet tickets guide.

Victory's numbers

These are operator estimates from the funnels we run, not a dataset. Each sits next to the published figure it compares with.

Format	What we typically see	Published comparison
Free one-day in-person, cold paid social	35–45% of registrants	~72% check-in, free events, PheedLoop[1]
Paid VIP ticket, $100–$297	85–90%	~83% check-in, paid events, PheedLoop[1]
Free three-day event, unique registrants on at least one day	10–15%	No published curve
Free evening webinar, cold paid traffic	25–35% live	Not separated in the reports above
Free webinar, warm or house list	40–50% live	40% Goldcast[2]; 47.7% Livestorm[3]; 49% Univid[4]
Paid-ad window	10–14 days for free in-person events; 2 days for webinars	13-day median for the top 1,000 webinars by attendance, Zoom[10]
Reminder SMS delivered, after our deliverability fix	95%+ (our target)	No method-disclosed benchmark
Registrants who add the Wallet pass when offered	40–55% (a save rate, not a show rate)	Oztix: 40% of Android users saved tickets[36]

Operator estimates from our experience, not a dataset. No sample size is implied.

Why is our free in-person number so far below PheedLoop's? We think it's the audience. Platform organizers mostly fill rooms from people they already know. We fill them from people who saw an ad a few days ago. That's reasoning, not a measurement, but it's why we tell clients to plan on their own show rate. The event marketing pillar shows how that number drives the budget, and why people register and don't show up covers how to raise it.

Methodology and update cadence

Every figure above was checked at its source on 2026-10-04: the number, its context and its date. We left out figures we couldn't open, including ON24's webinar conversion figure, whose page blocked access. Sources older than about two years are labelled with their age. We plan to refresh this page quarterly and flag any statistic more than 12 months old.