Out of the loop

The short version;

1. There was probably a legit sighting of a few drones at some point. (Its a pretty regular occurrence).
2. It got amplified by a few people.
3. News media amped it up more
4. People started looking up in the sky at night and not knowing what they were looking at.
5. MANY many reports of drones are just regular air traffiic, or planets, or stars.
6. More people started looking. Some of then launching their own drones to look at the drones.
7. And it just kinda snowballed from there.

TLDR; People looking at the sky for the first time discover its full of lights from various sources which they can't id.

Note: I do find it rather amusing how many people apparently can't ID an aircraft flying overhead or know what an out-of-focus star looks like. I guess theres always new people learning new things. Just wouldn't have put those two things on my list.

Edit: A fair bit of it is the usual "Aliens" people making noise, and im sure there are plenty of others farming engagement for $$$. I don't think we are going to get a clear picture for a while. We will have to wait for the hype / hysteria to die down before we get any reasonable assesment.