Every week the research team here at Hitwise do some analysis of the ticketing industry to see which music artists are being searched for the most and which are the most popular gigs/festivals that people want to attend. Whilst this always throws up a few surprises (how can Michael Bolton still be so popular?), what was particularly fascinating this week was that none of the top 20 search terms driving traffic to ticketing sites were for music artists.

Predictably, most of the top terms are either brand or venue related, ‘ticketmaster’ and ‘cardiff international arena’ being two prime examples of these. However, it is very unusual to not have a single music artist in the top 20 terms. It was only when I started looking further down the list that I realised a disproportionate number of comedians arising in the search data, Micky Flanagan and Sarah Millican being the most prominent among these.
No fewer than eight comedians were featured within this week’s top 100 search terms, last week there were five, and the week before that three. According to the search behaviour of the UK population this is clearly a big week for comedy.
So who are the most sought after comedians right now? The table below shows the comedians which received the highest search volumes for the week ending 22 January.

Newcomer Micky Flanagan leads the pack followed by Geordie Sarah Millican and Inbetweeners star Greg Davies. Well established household names including Lee Evans, Peter Kay, and Michael McIntyre make up the middle pack, with veteran John Cleese completing the top 10.
What’s interesting about this list is just how many of the performers have featured on Michael McIntyre’s comedy roadshow. Flanagan, Millican, Carr and Jupp all have featured on the show and have prominent YouTube clips in their SERPs position, perhaps influencing their online popularity and the subsequent visits to the ticketing category.
Follow Hitwise on Twitter.