Image credit: Formula One
Among affluent consumers globally, Formula One is now the most wanted sport event on the calendar.
Sixteen percent of affluent consumers globally placed a Formula One Grand Prix in their top three desired events – the highest figure of any individual sport tested, ahead of UEFA Champions League football at 15 percent, NBA basketball at 14 percent, Grand Slam tennis at 10 percent and major golf tournaments at 10 percent. This was a key finding from a new survey by Affluential, a sibling brand to Agility Research and Strategy.
Among HNW consumers the figure rises to 18 percent.
No other sport on the list closes that gap at the wealth tier that matters most to premium brands.
The Affluential TrendLens Wave 1 2026 surveyed 5,800 affluent and high-net-worth consumers across nine global markets on the events and experiences they most want to attend.
Affluential TrendLens is a proprietary global luxury intelligence program tracking the attitudes, behavior and motivations of affluent and high-net-worth consumers in fashion, beauty, watches and jewelry, alcohol and travel across nine global markets: Australia, China, United States, United Kingdom, Japan, France, India, Indonesia and Thailand.
The 2026 data is drawn from 5,000-plus respondents.
Sporting form
The latest Affluential results reorder the conventional luxury calendar in ways that for which most brand and sponsorship strategies have not yet accounted.
The appetite for live sporting attendance is not uniform.
Interest in F1 skews male, with 18 percent of male consumers selecting it in their top three against 14 percent of women, and younger, with under-45s at 17 percent against 14 percent for over -45s.
Female affluent consumers are not disengaged from the events calendar. Their attention distributes differently.
Cannes Film Festival draws 19 percent among women, Fashion Weeks 28 percent and Design Weeks percent.
The sport-first sponsorship strategy built around a presumed male audience is working with incomplete data.
Away from spectating, 12 percent of affluent consumers actively practice sport as a hobby, rising to 13 percent among under -45s.
Polo and equestrian pursuits are cited by 6 percent of the sample, with inherited-wealth households indexing above average.
These figures suggest the participation market is not a secondary consideration, per Affluential.
For a meaningful subset of affluent consumers, sport is where they spend time, not just where they watch.
FOR LUXURY BRANDS with sponsorship budgets, a fixed allocation to one platform is increasingly difficult to defend.
The affluent consumers most likely to spend across fashion, hospitality, watches and fine wine distribute their event interest across sport, arts and culture in ways that do not map to a single calendar slot.
Presence at the circuit alone does not constitute a strategy.
“Formula One is most-wanted sport event on calendar for affluent consumers globally” courtesy of Luxury Marketer Intelligence in Luxury Marketer (June 24, 2026). © 2026 WWD. All rights reserved.