Young millennials and Gen Z history fans are leading the charge to see the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum, figures suggest.
Some 55 per cent of buyers who logged on to secure the latest release of tickets last Wednesday were under 35, according to customer data from the bank Monzo.
Thousands joined a queue online to book to see the embroidery, prompting comparisons with ticketed events such as Glastonbury Festival and the Oasis reunion tour.
The launch triggered payments to the museum of 48 times that of a normal Wednesday morning, according to data from Monzo’s 16 million customers.
Gen Z, those aged between 14 and 29, are the first generation to grow up with smartphones and social media.
But younger generations are increasingly embracing traditional pastimes such as museums and walking in an effort to spend less time staring at screens.
The “hobby-maxxing” trend involves actively pursuing hands-on activities instead of defaulting to screens. The term has spread across social media and represents a cultural shift away from digital consumption.
The “Bayeux Boom” has also led to an upsurge in demand for needlecraft and embroidery kits. John Lewis says thousands of customers have been inspired by the high-profile coverage of the British Museum exhibition to pick up a needle and thread.
The Telegraph previously reported the British Museum suffered several “teething problems” trying to accommodate the number of visitors to the Tapestry, with 100,000 filing past the 230ft artwork in the first few weeks of its display.
The museum’s website crashed during the first ticket release in July, amid a strong demand for tickets initially offered to members.
In the first hour of the second release on Wednesday, Monzo cardholders spent £14,100 on tickets to the exhibition – double the opening mornings for this year’s blockbuster films The Odyssey, at £7,000, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, at £6,300.
Buyers spent five times more on average at the checkout than on Spider-Man’s opening morning, at £97 compared with £19.
In the two hours after tickets went on sale at 10am, Monzo customers spent £30,500 on tickets.
The exhibition at the London museum has been met with a huge surge of interest from people wanting to see the woven record of the Norman Conquest, which has returned to the UK for the first time in almost 1,000 years.
There will be another chance to buy tickets in 2027, when the final tranche goes on sale.
The British Museum said the response to the Tapestry going on display last month had been “extraordinary”, leading it to make changes to address lengthy queues of visitors, including banning photos.
One insider previously told The Telegraph: “We’ve had even more interest than wave one and it’s fantastic to see a 1,000-year-old embroidery become as hot a ticket as Glastonbury.”