The Signal

UK Movement Intelligence by Data Jam

March 2026

Audience movement trends across the UK

Like-for-Like Growth

+22.0%

Year-over-year increase across matched locations — Q1 closes on a high

Mar 2025

158M

impressions

Mar 2026

193M

impressions

Peak Day

7.3M

March 28 — Earth Hour Sat

Avg Daily

6.2M

+22% vs 2025 (5.1M)

Why like-for-like?

We compare only locations that were active in both March 2025 and March 2026 — same venues, same measurement zones. This isolates genuine audience growth from network expansion, giving you the true market signal. The matched locations in this report represent a consistent, comparable set across both years.

Daily Movement

March 2026 vs 2025 — with event overlays

Peak event days

Mother's Day dip (Mar 15)

What Drove Movement

5.3M

7.2M

🏈

Six Nations Saturday

Every match day spiked 31–38% YoY

Rugby + football is the most powerful movement combination of the year. Every Six Nations Saturday in March exceeded 6.9M impressions.

Mar 7Scotland vs Ireland + FA Cup QF7.2M+37.4%

Mar 14Super Saturday6.9M+31.2%

Mar 21Final Round + FA Cup SF7.2M+37.5%

💑

The Mother's Day Effect

The only day 2026 fell below 2025

March 15 was the sole exception to a month of unbroken YoY growth. People stayed home. The dip was sharp — but the recovery was instant.

Mar 15 2025

5.9M

Mar 15 2026

5.4M

A -9% drop on the day — then Monday Mar 16 bounced straight back to +27% YoY. Predictable. Plannable.

👑

Saturday is Still King

7.15M avg — highest day every week without exception

All four Saturdays exceeded 6.9M. Saturday now accounts for the largest share of weekly movement, averaging 7.15M — up +22.7% YoY.

March Saturdays

Mar 77.19M

Mar 146.94M

Mar 217.21M

Mar 287.26M

📈

The Monday Surge

Mondays averaged 6.1M — up +21% YoY

The biggest surprise of the month. Monday Mar 30 hit 6.6M — the highest Monday of the month. End-of-quarter energy in the commute belt.

Mar 25.2M— Week opener

Mar 96.1M— +36% vs 2025

Mar 166.1M— Post Mother's Day bounce

Mar 236.5M— Strong run-in

Mar 306.6M— Q1 close energy

🕐

Clocks Forward, Footfall Flat

BST switch on Mar 29 (Sunday)

The spring clock change barely registered. Mar 29 showed just +2% YoY — the weakest Sunday of the month. The lost hour didn't dent the audience; it simply shifted the profile.

Mar 29 2025

5.9M

Clocks Forward 2025

Mar 29 2026

6.0M

Clocks Forward 2026

🏆

Q1 Closes Strong

Three consecutive months of double-digit growth

Mar 31 hit 6.5M. The quarter ended on a high. Payday Friday (Mar 27) at 6.7M combined with Earth Hour Saturday at 7.3M to cap the month in style.

Q1 2026 like-for-like YoY

January 2026+20%

February 2026+17%

March 2026+22%

Day of Week

Average daily impressions by day of week (thousands) — like-for-like

Mon

+21%

Tue

+25.3%

Wed

+19.2%

Thu

+21.4%

Fri

+22.6%

Sat

+22.7%

Sun

+25.9%

Saturday is still the week's peak. At +22.7% YoY, it led all weekdays by volume. Sunday and Tuesday were the surprise growers at +25.9% and +25.3% respectively — suggesting spring daylight and weekend leisure traffic is expanding fast. Even the quietest day of the week (Wednesday, +19.2%) outperformed last year's baseline by a wide margin.

Methodology

Data sourced from Data Jam's UK measurement network across retail, leisure, entertainment, transport, and hospitality venues. Like-for-like comparison uses only locations active in both March 2025 and March 2026. Football fixtures from TheSportsDB. Six Nations fixtures from World Rugby. All impressions are raw audience counts with no modelling or extrapolation applied.

Why like-for-like?

Daily Movement

What Drove Movement

Day of Week

Methodology

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