Monzo users spent £14,100 in first hour for Bayeux tickets

Monzo cardholders spent £14,100 on tickets for the British Museum’s Bayeux tapestry exhibition during the first hour of sales last Wednesday. That figure was 48 times higher than the bank’s typical Wednesday morning spending pattern for its 16 million customers.

The data indicates a specific demographic shift in museum attendance. During that initial hour, 55% of the buyers were under the age of 35. By the two-hour mark, total spending from Monzo users had reached £30,500.

These figures allow for a direct comparison with the entertainment industry. The first-hour museum spending was roughly double the amount Monzo customers paid for opening morning tickets to The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Those film releases generated £7,000 and £6,300 respectively in similar opening windows.

Price points explain the variance in total volume. Adult admission for the tapestry costs £33 at peak times and £27 off-peak. In contrast, the average cinema ticket costs less. Monzo users paid an average of £97 per checkout for the museum exhibit, compared with £19 for Spider-Man tickets.

Demand extended beyond London. Nearly half of the purchasers were based outside the capital, with transactions recorded as far away as Glasgow. This access allows viewers to see the 1,000-year-old embroidery in England for the first time since it was moved to France in the 11th century.

The second batch of tickets sold out within three hours of going live at 10am. This pace was considerably faster than the first release, which took 24 hours to exhaust its supply. Thousands of people joined the online queue when sales opened.

The British Museum called the response since the exhibition opened last month extraordinary. To manage the volume, the institution introduced a ban on visitor photography. This policy aims to reduce the length of queues for people holding tickets.