I’ll be honest, I absolutely wrote this blog post almost exclusively to use that pun in the title.
That’s where I peak for the day. Good night, folks.
…
Unfortunately I can’t just leave things there. Anyone reading this in the distant future without the context of my social media stinger would be lost.
If you are reading this way after I’m writing it, hello! My name is Jason. This is my blog. I’m here to talk about porn today.
I swear that’s not an everyday occurrence.
I wouldn’t typically bring up the subject at all unless I had a good reason to. It just so happens that this tweet sent me down a rabbit hole this morning.
Apparently Pornhub does a yearly visualization of site analytics, and the fact that I wasn’t aware of it before is a travesty. I’ve gotten very into that sort of thing recently, so alongside psychological implications of “what the world gets off on,” you’ve got something right up my alley.
I suppose 2018 is a good a time as any to find out about it, because hoo boy is there a ton of interesting stuff.
Obviously this whole subject is a bit NSFW, but I’m more interested in it from a data analysis side. However, if you’re squeamish about the topic I’ll understand if you don’t want to read on.
That said, here are some of my favorite Pornhub Insights from 2018.
… Definitely not a sentence I ever thought I would be writing.
The data that starts off the review is fascinating just from the sheer scale.
Apparently there were 92 million daily visits to the site on average, and about 115 years worth of video were uploaded this year. I know porn is a popular thing, and typically an early adopter of every form of mass media thanks to my Comm classes…
But 115 years of video just this year alone?
I’m not sure how to comprehend that much porn. Especially considering Pornhub is just one of countless porn websites.
When presented with that myriad of information, my first inclination is to ask how it filtered down. Luckily, Pornhub has a number of well-done infographics breaking things into manageable chunks. For instance:
There’s a lot to say about these defining searches.
Stormy Daniels stands out in how hilarious it is that a serious presidential scandal skyrocketed this woman from being the 671 most popular pornstar in 2017 to being the most popular search result in 2018.
Fortnite, as much as I don’t particularly enjoy it, makes sense as a high result considering how popular the game is. Though in that same vein, Bowsette skyrocketing into the top ten based on that week or two she was a popular concept is astounding.
Later on they break down the highest video game-related searches, and it’s not too surprising.
The best thing about this list is Mario being the highest male result. Shout out to that portly plumber for representing male characters.
With that said, I find the worldwide search analyses more interesting than the media-specific stuff. The fact that categories like “4K,” “Trans” and “Tinder” were among top search results says a lot about the era we live in.
It also says a lot about porn watchers that “Lesbian,” “Hentai,” “Milf,” “Step mom” and “Japanese” were the top five most searched terms this year. Especially given that the United States produced the most Pornhub traffic by more than three times its runner-up, the United Kingdom.
Easily the most interesting graphic produced in this set shows which parts of the world searched for what kinds of porn most.
Just look at that sharp divide between “Lesbian” porn in the Americas, “Hentai” in Asia/Russia and “Ebony” porn in Africa. The strong leanings in these parts of the world is simply fascinating to me.
Shout out to Pakistan for being about the sole representative of “Big Dick” porn too. Much respect.
The other segment that really intrigued me was the technology insights. For instance, the clear leaning toward Windows/Android devices:
Or the fact that about 0.7 percent of Pornhub users are searching from their 3DS systems:
Like who is doing that?! Who is using that janky 3DS web browser to search for porn?
I’d like to meet and interview those people.
There’s so many more things to draw out of these data sets, from the gendered search results to the periods when traffic to the site fell (including the day Big Bang Theory season 11 premiered) and which days/times are the most popular for porn watching.
But the more I talk about here, the more I’ll feel like I’m just stealing things. So instead I’ll point out the link once again and encourage you all to check out the information for yourself.
It’s a hell of a rabbit hole to dive down, and after getting lost in it this morning I’d highly recommend it.
Jason's Blog - Work in Progress 