Welcome to Pornhub’s 6th annual Year in Review, our complete recap of the trends, tech and types of porn that logged us on and got us off in 2018. If you’ve followed our Pornhub Insights blog you already know that 2018 was an epic year with lots of searches, celebrities and events that influenced how people around the world have enjoyed visiting and using Pornhub.
Follow along to see the most interesting data points amassed by our team of statisticians, all presented with colorful charts and insightful commentary. Enjoy!
The Year in Numbers
Top Searches & Pornstars
Traffic & Time on Site
Gender Demographics
Age Demographics
Devices & Technology
Celebrity Searches
Movie & Game Searches
Events, Holidays & Sports
Top 20 Countries in Depth
The Year in Numbers
Now we’re not saying that size matters, but 2018 was an impressively big year for Pornhub and its users. Visits to Pornhub totaled 33.5 billion over the course of 2018, an increase of 5 billion visits over 2017. That equates to a daily average of 92 million visitors and at the time of this writing, Pornhub’s daily visits now exceed 100 million. To put that into perspective, that’s as if the combined populations of Canada, Poland and Australia all visited Pornhub every day!
Pornhub’s servers served up 30.3 billion searches, or 962 searches per second. To make sure there was always fresh content to satisfy those searches, Pornhub’s amateurs, models and content partners uploaded an incredible 4.79 million new videos, creating over 1 million hours of new content to enjoy on the site. If you were to start watching 2018’s videos after the Wright brother’s first flight in 1903, you would still be watching them today 115 years later!
All that high definition video means a lot of data gets pumped out by Pornhub’s servers every day. In 2018, we transferred 4403 Petabytes of data, which equates to 147 Gigabytes per second. That’s more bandwidth than the entire internet consumed in 2002!
When they’re not busy watching videos, Pornhub’s users enjoy socializing, with nearly 64 million private messages sent and 7.9 million video comments left. The most often used words in Pornhub comments include lots of feel good terms such as love, hot, like, good and sexy. More than 141 million people took the time to vote for their favorite videos, which incidentally is more people than voted in the last U.S. presidential election.
While You Were Fapping
Every minute, 63,992 new visitors arrive at Pornhub, 207,405 videos are watched and 57,750 searches are performed. 55 of those video views are of Kim Kardashian’s sex tape, which is still Pornhub’s most watched video of all time at 195 million views.
12 new videos and 2 hours of content are uploaded to Pornhub every minute while 7708 Gigabytes of data are transferred worldwide. Pornhub’s users view 13,962 profiles, follow 593 other users, accept 167 friend requests and send 122 messages. 271 videos are rated, 528 are added to playlists and 22 new comments are left.
Top Searches & Pornstars
Regular followers of our Insights blog will know that Pornhub’s top searches are often influenced by mainstream media and pop culture events. It’s perhaps no surprise that pornstar (and alleged pre-presidential mistress) Stormy Daniels came in first on our list of the searches that defined 2018. Beginning in January, each time she was in the news the public’s curiosity would peak and searches for Stormy surged.
Searches for the hit game ‘Fortnite’ also defined 2018 as it skyrocketed from obscurity to one of our Top 20 searches of the year. Each time a new Fortnite character was released, searches would increase dramatically. You can check out all of our Top Video Game Character Searches below.
According to Dr Laurie Betito, Director of the Pornhub Sexual Wellness Center, “searches like these serve as an indication that people use this site to not only satisfy sexual urges but also to get a different angle on something they are already interested in. To see a famous character or hot topic in a sexual context.”
Fantasy plays a big role in pornography (and indeed in human sexuality), so it’s only natural that people will desire seeing sexual scenarios involving the game characters they emotionally connect with. In April when Fortnite’s servers crashed, searches for Fortnite increased by as much as 60% over a 24 hour period.
Just as ‘1080p’ searches had been a defining term in 2017, now “4k” ultra-hd has seen a significant increase in popularity through-out 2018. The popularity of ‘Romantic’ videos more than doubled, and remained twice as popular with female visitors when compared to men.
Interest in ‘trans’ (aka transgender) porn saw significant gains in 2018, in particular with a 167% increase in searches by men and more than 200% with visitors over the age of 45 (becoming the fifth most searched terms by those aged 45 to 64).
Not only did searches for ‘outdoor’ porn grow throughout 2018, but our statisticians also noted that the number of uploads tagged as being filmed outdoors nearly tripled.
Searches for ‘tattoos’ grew significantly throughout the year, mirroring their increased popularity reported among millennials and young professionals. Pornhub’s ‘Tattooed Women’ category grew in popularity by 88% compared to 2017.
Searches referring to the dating app ‘Tinder’ grew by 161% among women, 113% among men and 131% by visitors aged 35 to 44. It was also a top trending term in many countries including the United Kingdom and Australia. The number of Tinder themed fantasy date videos on the site is now more than 3500.
Life imitates art, and eventually porn imitates everything, so perhaps it’s no surprise to see that ‘Bowsette’ also made our list of searches that defined 2018. After the original Nintendo fan-art went viral, searches for Bowsette exceeded 3 million in just one week and resulted in the release of a live-action Bowsette themed porn parody (NSFW) with more than 720,000 views.
Finally, we found that ‘threesome’ videos had a significant impact in 2018, as it became Pornhub’s 8th most popular category, and the second most popular category of video among women. Threesome porn saw big gains in many European countries including France, Italy, Spain, Poland and the Netherlands.
2018’s Most Searched for Terms
Trendy terms aside, Pornhub’s top 4 searches by volume remained the same from 2017 to 2018. These included ‘lesbian’, ‘hentai‘ (NSFW), ‘milf‘ (NSFW) and ‘step mom’. “Contrary to popular belief, men are not just interested in youthful bodies,” notes Dr. Laurie. “They like the idea of an older, experienced woman and may care less about the perfection of her body.”
Searches for ‘Japanese’ gained 3 positions to become the 5th most popular search, with ‘Asian’ gaining 6, ‘Korean’ up an impressive 16 and ‘Chinese’ up 14 positions.
Last year’s most popular video game search ‘Overwatch’ dropped 7 spots to make way for new video game favorite ‘Fortnite’. 2018 saw ‘cartoon’ slip 6 positions, while ‘anime’ gained an impressive 22. Both ‘big ass’ and ‘big tits’ saw big growth by 4 and 6 spots respectively.
It perhaps comes as no surprise that Stormy Daniels (NSFW) was the most searched for pornstar of 2018, shooting up from her previous rank of 671 in 2017 and ending the year with 84 million views of her videos. Other big gainers included Lana Rhoades (NSFW) by 24 spots, Abella Danger (NSFW) by 19 and Adriana Chechik (NSFW) by 31, while Kim Kardashian (NSFW) dropped from 4th down to 14th. Riley Reid (NSFW) had the most video views in 2018 at 363 million, followed by Lana Rhoades with an impressive 345 million video views.
For the second year, Brazzer’s exclusive star Jordi El Nino Polla (NSFW) was the most searched for male pornstar, this time holding his own alongside the top female pornstars for an overall rank of 12. Johnny Sins (NSFW) moved up into 2nd place replacing last year’s Mandingo (NSFW) who dropped to 5th.
Check out our Gender Demographics below to see which pornstars are more popular with Pornhub’s female visitors.
Top 20 Countries by Traffic
Once again, the United States continues to be the country with the highest daily traffic to Pornhub, followed by the United Kingdom, India, Japan, Canada, France and Germany. Traffic from Italy grew in 2018 causing it to take over 8th position from Australia. The Philippines gained 3 positions to reach the top 10, while Mexico remained at 11th. Brazil, Spain and the Netherlands all decreased in rank, as Poland moved up.
The newest member of Pornhub’s top 20 is Ukraine, which gained an impressive 11 spots over 2017. Sweden, Argentina, Russia and South Africa all remained in the top 20.
Combined, these top 20 countries make up 80% of Pornhub’s daily traffic, so we’ll be featuring more details on each country throughout the rest of the Year in Review. For even more in-depth coverage including their trending searches, you can skip ahead to our Top 20 Featured Countries section.
A Time for Reflection
2018 saw Pornhub’s average visit duration grow by 14 seconds to 10 minutes and 13 seconds. While some visitors may be taking more time to watch videos and make use of Pornhub’s community features, time on site can reflect many factors including the speed of broadband and mobile internet bandwidth available in different regions.
Still topping the list of the most fapptapular countries is the Philippines with an impressively long lasting time of 13 minutes and 50 seconds, up a further 22 seconds from 2017. In fact all our top 20 countries managed to last a bit longer in 2018, with the exception of South Africans who managed to get the job done 5 seconds quicker than they did last year.
While still coming up a bit short, visitors from Japan increased their average visit time by nearly a minute in 2018. For the second year in a row, Russia comes and goes faster than any other top 20 country at only 7 minutes and 48 seconds.
While the United States has a relatively impressive staying power of 10 minutes 37 seconds, some states go out of their way to impress. Visitors from Mississippi best the national average by 46 seconds, along with 37 seconds in South Carolina, 35 in Arkansas and 33 in Alabama.
Kansas is by far the quickest at only 9 minutes 21 seconds. Last year’s speediest state, Oregon, added 21 seconds to their visit time in 2018 placing them just short of the national average. The year’s biggest drop came from the District of Columbia, which lost 20 seconds in visit time compared to 2017.
Worldwide, and indeed in most countries we have studied, Sunday is the most popular day to visit Pornhub, while Friday tends to have the lowest traffic. A lot of that has to do with the hours people prefer to watch porn. Peak viewing times are usually from 10pm to Midnight, but on weekends (as people tend to stay up a later, go out more, and sleep in longer), the viewing time shifts more into the morning hours.
Categorical Analysis
While search terms can be more easily influenced by current trends and differing international terminologies, Pornhub’s 100+ video categories are the same throughout the world. So whether compared internationally or on a local level, categories can give a solid indication of the types or genres of porn that people are most interested in viewing.
For the last several years, ‘Lesbian’ has remained the most viewed category of video on Pornhub throughout most of the world. 2018 however saw other popular favorites like ‘MILF’, ‘Ebony’ and ‘Hentai’ all take a hit to make way for the ‘Japanese’ category, now in 2nd. Views of the ‘Japanese’ category were bolstered by the additional traffic coming from countries like Japan and the Philippines where visitors tend to watch more Japanese porn.
‘Anal’ and ‘Mature’ remained equally popular, while ‘Threesome’ pushed ahead of ‘Big Tits’. The ‘Amateur’ category continued to make gains, much like it did in the 2017 and 2016 Yearly Reviews. “It seems that people are moving away from commercially produced porn and wanting to see more natural bodies. It may feed the fantasy that even the girl next door can be secretly naughty,” suggests Dr. Laurie.
The following map illustrates which categories are most popular in different parts of the world. ‘Lesbian’ dominates much of North, Central and South American, along with many parts of Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
‘Hentai’ is more popular in Russia throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as well as parts of South America like Chile and Peru. ‘Arab’ is searched more often in Northern Africa, while ‘Ebony’ is the most viewed through the Central, West and Southern Africa regions.
Views of the ‘Romantic’ category more than doubled in 2018, as well as an 88% increase in ‘Tattooed Women’. As more intelligent sex toys have been hitting the market, we’ve seen Pornhub’s ‘Interactive’ category grow in popularity since its launch. Popularity of the ‘Korean’ category saw significant gains which coincided with the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea.
The ‘Amateur’ category is viewed the longest at an average of 15 minutes 25 seconds, an increase of 54 seconds over 2017. The next longest viewed category is ‘Mature’ at 14 minutes and 21 seconds. While the ‘Red Head’ category is typically watched for the shortest period of time — just over 3 minutes — it could also be argued that videos featuring red heads are just really good at getting the job done, so to speak. The same can be said for ‘POV’, ‘Virtual Reality’, ‘Hentai’ and ‘Tattooed Women’ which are all viewed for less than 9 minutes on average.
Pornhub Pride
By analyzing traffic landing specifically on Pornhub Gay pages, our statisticians were able to see what type of gay (male) porn was the most popular in 2018. Searches for ‘Korean’ took over the number one spot from ‘Japanese’, while ‘black’, ‘daddy’, ‘straight’ and ‘Asian’ all saw significant growth compared to the previous year. ‘Hentai’ made significant gains, moving up 15 spots to become the 15th most popular search among Pornhub’s gay male viewers.
Searches for ‘Fortnite’ were equally popular among Pornhub Gay viewers (as with non-gay viewers). Other trending terms included ‘omg his dick’ (up 3481%), ‘no foreplay’ (up 626%), as well as ‘truth dare’, ‘camp buddy’, and ‘men suits’.
In 2018, ‘Straight Guys’ replaced ‘Black’ as the most viewed category on Pornhub Gay, while ‘Daddy’, ‘Bareback’ and ‘Big Dick’ continued to make up the other top 5. The ‘cartoon’ category gained 5 positions to make the gay top 10 for the first time.
William Seed was the most searched for gay pornstar, followed by Armond Rizzo (NSFW), Rocco Steele (NSFW) , Austin Wolf (NSFW) and Diego Sans (NSFW).
Gender Demographics
‘Lesbian’ remained the number one search among female visitors to Pornhub, while ‘Japanese’ grew to become the number one search among men in place of ‘MILF’. ‘Hentai’ continued to make gains moving from 4th up to 3rd place among both men and women.
The top trending term for both genders was the game ‘Fortnite’. Searches for ‘Korean’ grew by 188% among women and 213% among men, while ‘trans’ saw a 73% gain with women and 167% with men. Searches relating to the popular dating app ‘Tinder’ grew for both genders, while ‘ASMR’ (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) resonated strongly with women for the second year.
Women are proportionately 281% more likely to view the ‘Pussy Licking’ category when compared to men, 197% more likely to view ‘Solo Male’ videos and 151% more into ‘Lesbian’ videos. Dr Laurie notes that “women continue to favour lesbian porn. They get to see acts they enjoy on themselves – that’s why ‘pussy licking’ is popular. They also seem to enjoy simple eye candy (‘solo male’) performing just for her, perhaps in her ‘fantasy’.”
Women are twice as likely to watch content featuring ‘Gangbang’ and ‘Double Penetration’ porn, but they’re also twice as likely to watch ‘Romantic’ themed videos. According to Dr. Laurie, this could be an indication that “women are looking for more story lines out of their porn. In fantasy some want to be swept off their feet. This is interesting because in reality, women are far more empowered and “in charge” of their sexuality, yet in fantasy some still hold on to traditional gender roles.”
Stormy Daniels came first as the pornstar most often searched by women in 2018, followed by Mia Khalifa and Johnny Sins. When compared to men, women were 451% more likely to search for gay pornstar Chris Crocker, who is also a well known internet celebrity. (Who remembers his “Leave Britney Alone!” video)?
Three of the top five pornstars more often searched by women (compared to men) are gay pornstars, including Diego Sans and William Seed. That’s no surprise, as an earlier Insights study found that 37% of gay male porn is actually being viewed by women on Pornhub.
2018 saw the proportion of female visitors to Pornhub grow to 29%, an increase of 3 percentage points over 2017. Dr Laurie observes that “every year we see an increase indicating that women are more and more comfortable exploring their sexuality, moving away from the idea that porn is just for men—-what a shift from only just a few decades ago!”
Among Pornhub’s top 20 traffic countries, the Philippines has the highest proportion of female visitors at 38%, followed by 35% of both Brazil’s and South Africa’s traffic. Japan and Italy both saw female viewership grow by 6 percentage points compared to 2017.
The following map illustrates the parts of the world in which the proportion of female visitors is higher or lower when compared to the worldwide average of 29%.
Age Demographics
Pornhub’s visitors grew up a bit over the last year in terms of average age, but only by half a year, with the average worldwide Pornhub user now being aged 35.5 years old. The proportion of 18 to 24 year old visitors dropped by 3 percentage points, while 25 to 34 year olds grew by the same 3 points. Together, millennials aged 18 to 34 remained as 61% of Pornhub’s traffic.
The United States saw its Pornhub viewership mature by a full 2 years from an average of 36 to 38, as did the United Kingdom. India has by far the largest proportion of millennials making up 85% of traffic and averaging 29 years old. Argentina has the largest proportion of Pornhub viewers over the age of 45, comprising of 33% of their traffic.
In 2018, ‘hentai’ replaced ‘lesbian’ as the most popular search among Pornhub visitors aged 18 to 24 and also saw ‘anime’ make their top 10 for the first time. ‘Fortnite’ was the top trending term in their age group, along with 143% increase in ASMR searches. When compared to all other ages, 18 to 24 year olds were 124% more likely to view the ‘Hentai’ category, 101% more into ‘Cartoon’ and 67% more into ‘Cosplay’.
‘Japanese’ continued it’s second year as the most popular search among 25 to 34 year olds. ‘Fortnite’ was the top trending term, as well as a 233% increase in ‘Korean’ searches and 187% increase in ‘anime’. Compared to other age groups 25 to 34 year olds were 38% more likely to view ‘Virtual Reality’ videos and 34% more into ‘Tattooed Women’.
Visitors aged 35 to 44 most favored the ‘MILF’ category in 2018, replacing last year’s first choice of ‘Japanese’. Searches for dating app ‘Tinder’ grew by 131%, along with a 124% increase in searches for ‘trans’ porn and 107% for ‘anime’. 35 to 44 year olds were 28% more likely to view ‘Double Penetration’ videos, and 27% more into ‘BBW’ porn, compared to all other age groups.
Searches for ‘trans’ porn grew by 214% among visitors aged 45 to 54, and searches for ‘mature cougar’ roared up by 81%. When compared to other age groups, 45 to 54 year olds were 53% more likely to view the ‘Handjob’ category, 45% more into ‘Mature’ and 43% more into ‘Bisexual’.
Visitors aged 55 to 64 had an even larger increase in ‘trans’ interest growing by 290% compared to 2017. They also searched ‘mature amateur’ 243% more than the previous year, and 167% more for ‘hot granny’. Compared to all other age groups, visitors aged 55 to 64 were 98% more likely to view ‘Vintage’ videos, 89% more into ‘Handjob’ and 54% more into ‘Mature’.
Pornhub’s most senior visitors, over the age of 65, searched for ‘extreme’ videos 210% more than previous years, as well as 197% more for ‘classic’ and 183% for ‘bisexual swingers’. Revisiting porn of yesteryear meant that 65+ visitors were 122% more likely to view ‘Vintage’ videos, 106% more into ‘Mature’ and 68% more into ‘Small Tits’ when compared to younger aged groups.
Devices & Technology
Mobile porn continued it’s meteoric rise throughout 2018, with 80% of Pornhub’s worldwide visits now coming from smartphones and tablets. That’s an 8% gain in smartphone share since 2017, while desktop’s share has dropped by 18%.
In the United States, mobile usage reached 91% in 2018 with smartphone visits seeing growth in all of Pornhub’s top 20 traffic countries. With the availability of inexpensive data plans increasing in India, it’s no surprise that mobile usage there reached 95% in 2018. As the Ukraine entered Pornhub’s top 20 countries for the first time, it’s easy to see where a lot of that growth came from with a 40% increase in smartphone traffic share during the same year.
Operating Systems
Even as desktop traffic continued to decrease, Windows remained the most popular desktop operating system for 77.1% of visitors. Google’s Chrome OS experienced a 30% increase in traffic share during 2018.
Among users on-the-go, Windows Mobile OS largely disappeared off the map with a 50% decrease in traffic share to only 0.9%. Apple’s iOS gave up 2% of its share to Android which increased by 2%. Android devices now account for 54.4% of mobile visits, and Apple’s iOS at 44.4%. In our 2015 Year in Review, Apple and Android were nearly tied at 46% and 47% of traffic respectively, so it seems that as other mobile OS have disappeared (like Windows and Blackberry), Android has taken up their market share.
Web Browsers
Among desktops, the Chrome browser still remains king at 57.3% of all visits, with an 8% gain in share during 2018. Microsoft’s Edge browser had the largest gain in traffic share by 17%, becoming the second most used desktop browser and besting its older brother Internet Explorer and even Apple’s Safari.
On mobile devices, the Chrome browser saw a slight gain to 41.1%, breaking its previous tie with Safari in 2017. Most other mobile browsers lost some of their share in 2018, as Samsung’s mobile browser grew by 69% to make up nearly 5% of Pornhub’s mobile visits.
Game Consoles
PlayStation’s share of console traffic dropped by 3% in 2018 while the Xbox share grew by 4%. That wasn’t enough to unseat PlayStation as the top choice for playing with oneself, as it still made up 54.4% of all console traffic.
Nintendo’s 3DS traffic was reduced by nearly half to a measly 0.7%, while the PlayStation Vita grew by 50% to a total of 7.3% of the overall shares.
Should Nintendo decide to unlock the Switch’s hidden web browsing function, it will be interesting to see how that impacts game console traffic to Pornhub. We’ll have to wait for Nintendo and the 2019 Year in Review to see if that happens!
Celebrity Searches
When celebrities are in the news and on everyone’s mind, they tend to drive a lot of Pornhub searches.
Stormy Daniels is our top pornstar of the year but we felt it necessary to include her with our celebrity searches as well because much of her attention was due to mainstream press coverage. Stormy managed to break 30 million searches in 2018, beating our usual chart topper Kim Kardashian’s 26 million searches, which were 4 million above her 2017 total.
Nicki Minaj topped the singer songwriters with 14.3 million searches, along with Cardi B at 12.7 million, Selena Gomez at 8.1 million and Ariana Grande at 7.5 million. Our most searched actor of the year was Noah Centineo. His searches shot up 874% on August 26th after the movie “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” was released and he became the internet’s latest ‘boyfriend crush’, leading him to 7.6 million searches in 2018.
Searches for Iggy Azalea shot up over 3000% in August after rumors she was dating an NFL player. Searches for NBA player Tristan Thompson increased by 2653% on April 12th after girlfriend Khloe Kardashian gave birth to their baby. By the end of 2018, Tristan’s 5.4 million searches were higher than Khloe’s 1 million.
Searches for actress Meghan Markle topped 2.5 million for the year and increased by 2812% on May 21st when she wed Prince Harry and became British royalty. (See our Royal Wedding Insights). Searches for Melania Trump totaled 628,014 which is less than her 1 million searches in 2017, but still double the 302,177 for her husband Donald Trump.
Kanye West’s searches grew by 2097% on September 12th shortly after he took part as Creative Director of the first Pornhub Awards and premiered his “I Love It” music video live at the show.
Movies, TV and Characters
DC character Harley Quinn once again topped our list of the most searched Movie and TV characters with over 10 million searches in 2018. Her total was 8.3 million in 2017, but over 10 million in 2016 after the Suicide Squad movie was released. This year’s second most searched character at 7.6 million was Elastigirl from The Incredibles, which also managed 7.2 million searches.
Star Wars is always a favorite search with lots of porn parodies having been made. Like other years, Star Wars searches grew by nearly 600% on it’s unofficial holiday “May the 4th“. Princess Leia remained the most searched Star Wars character followed by Rey and Ahsoka Tano.
With so many cartoon parodies, Family Guy managed 6.4 million searches in 2018, as well as 4 million for the Simpsons. Rick and Morty was a top trending search in our 2017 Year in Review and returns again this year with 3.1 million searches. Searches for Big Mouth were up 8700% in October after Season 2 was released, ending the year at 1.7 million.
Avengers achieved over 6 million searches in 2018 (up from 2.5 million in 2017) and was covered in more detail in our Avengers: Infinity Porn Insights.
Video Game Characters
There’s good reason that Bowsette became one of our top 10 terms that defined 2018, with an incredible 34.6 million searches! (See Bowser and Bowsette Insights for more coverage). Although she was based on fan art and never actually appeared in any games, we nonetheless felt that Bowsette deserved a spot at the top of our game character searches.
Video game Fortnite gave 2017’s favorite Overwatch a run for it’s money in 2018, but Overwatch characters were still on top when it came to searches. Overwatch’s Brigitte was the most searched game character at 4.8 million with a massive surge in searches after the March game update. (See Overwatch Brigitte Insights). Mercy was the second most popular Overwatch character at 3.2 million searches, followed by the Ashe character who only arrived in November but managed 2.6 million views in just over a month. (See Overwatch Ashe Insights).
As one of 2018’s defining terms, Fortnite had a big year on Pornhub, beginning with our first Fortnite Battle Royal Insights in March. When the Fortnite Server Outage happened in April, searches for Fortnite increased by 60% as players were looking for something else to keep their hands busy. The Fortnite Season 5 release caused another increase in searches, as did Fortnite Season 6 in September. Season 6 introduced the character Calamity who would be Fortnite’s most searched character of 2018 with 2.5 million searches.
Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft is a top game (and movie) character search year after year. Her popularity was bolstered in 2018 with both a fresh game and big screen movie release leading to 4.5 million searches. Lara Croft is also one of our top Halloween Costume Searches each year.
While it didn’t register any specific character searches, the game Red Dead Redemption became a top search on Pornhub after it was released in October, leading to over 1 million searches and a 745% increase in ‘Wild West’ and 489% in ‘Western’ related searches. See our full Red Dead Redemption Insights for more details.
Events Causing Traffic Changes
We’ve found that people are pretty regular when it comes to their masturbation schedule, choosing the most convenient days and times to visit Pornhub. Live TV and sporting events can cause a disruption in that schedule which leads to a noticeable drop in Pornhub’s traffic when compared to the same time on an average day. That quite often leads to a traffic increase following the event as people readjust to make up for lost Pornhub time.
More and more people are choosing to stream on-demand television so they can choose when to watch, but award shows are still a popular form of live entertainment. In March, the Academy Awards caused Pornhub traffic to drop by -6% and the Emmy Awards a -5% traffic drop.
One award show actually caused a traffic increase in 2018 and that was the First Annual Pornhub Awards which took place in Los Angeles and streamed live on Pornhub. Traffic to the site increased by 5% worldwide during the show.
The Apple Special Event is streamed live every fall and always causes a big traffic drop on Pornhub, in particular from people watching on their Apple based devices. This year worldwide iOS traffic dropped by -11%. Our statisticians took a more in depth look this year and monitored traffic changes by the minute to see which new product reveals during the 2 hour show caused more or less people to give up watching real porn in favor of tech porn. See our Apple Special Event: Traffic by the Minute Insights.
The Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Royal Wedding caused a -10% drop in worldwide traffic compared to an average day. The Sanremo Music Festival broadcast live caused a -8% traffic drop in Italy.
Watching the results of the midterm elections caused evening traffic to drop by -6% across the United States. To see how hourly traffic changed on November 6th by state, gender and age groups please see our complete Midterm Election Insights.
While not quite an event, when YouTube’s servers went down on October 16th, Pornhub’s traffic increased by up to 21% over a 2 hour period. See our YouTube Down, Pornhub Up Insights for more details.
Live Sporting Event Traffic
No one likes watching recorded sports games and having to avoid the inevitable spoilers. Whether in person with a crowd, or in front of a screen with friends, the only way to enjoy sports is to watch them as they are happening. It’s for that reason that live sporting events cause some of Pornhub’s biggest temporary traffic fluctuations.
Each year the Super Bowl causes a huge drop in traffic across the United States, this year by -26%. The cities and states cheering on their local home teams usually have an even greater drop. For example, traffic was down -40% in Philadelphia and -37% in Boston. See our full 2018 Super Bowl 52 Insights for complete hourly traffic data. Our statisticians also looked at how Philadelphia’s Super Bowl Parade caused traffic changes in the winning city.
The FIFA World Cup causes traffic to plummet all over the world, especially in nations when their teams are playing. Our statisticians followed the 2018 World Cup closely, first with our World Cup 2018: Country by Country Insights and finally the 2018 World Cup Final Insights which showed an incredible -55% traffic drop in the winning nation of France and -66% in Croatia.
We also closely followed the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. World traffic dropped by -6% during the opening ceremony, and during certain events like the Men’s Hockey Final when traffic from Russia dropped -13% and Germany by -9%. In our 2018 Winter Olympics Insights we followed traffic in the Ganwon-do region to see what searches may have been popular with athletes staying in the area and also what sports related searches increased worldwide.
Holidays Causing Traffic Changes
The following chart shows various worldwide holidays that cause traffic to drop on Pornhub in the celebrating countries. National holidays like Canada Day caused a -17% drop in Canada, Australia Day -12% down under, Bastille Day -9% in France, Carnival Monday -13% in Brazil and -15% during Holika Dahana in India.
Not quite a holiday, but certainly a reason to celebrate, the legalization of cannabis on October 17th caused a -15% traffic drop in Canada. See our Canada Gets Higher Insights to learn more.
Our International Women’s Day Insights showed that female traffic increased above average in the morning and afternoon on March 8th. The 2018 Women’s March Insights shows a traffic drop in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C. that day.
Halloween causes a -4% traffic drop on October 31st, but hits a low at 7pm with an average drop of -21% across the United States. See our full Halloween 2018 Insights to learn more. New Years Eve causes the biggest traffic drop in the United States by -38%, followed by a -34% drop on Christmas Eve and -17% on Christmas Day.
In 2018 Valentines Day caused an overall traffic increase of +7% in the United States, while our Pornhub Premium service saw a +308% increase due to our annual Free Valentines Day Premium event. See the complete Valentines Day Insights to learn more.
Worldwide traffic dropped an incredible -44% last New Years Eve from 6pm to Midnight (adjusted for all time zones). Of our Top 20 Traffic Countries, Sweden takes the cake for a -69% drop, followed by -67% in Belgium.
Top 20 Countries Compared
United States
‘Lesbian’ remained the most viewed category in the United States, but dropped from the list of top searches as new terms like ‘threesome’, ‘big ass’, ‘big tits’ and ‘black’ grew in popularity. Increased interest in ‘Latina’ porn was evident, as the term gained 14 spots to become the 6th most popular search in the country overall. Searches for the game ‘Fortnite’ were among the top trending searches, along with a 46% increase in ‘trans’ and 28% in ‘anime’.
Stormy Daniels was the most searched for pornstar in the U.S., as Kim Kardashian dropped below the top 10 for the first time. When compared to other parts of the world, Americans are 62% more likely to view ‘Latina’ videos, 60% more into ‘Ebony’ and 36% more into ‘Interracial’.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, searches for ‘big tits’ saw a big increase by 14 spots, becoming 2018’s 6th most searched for term. ‘Public’ searches gained 13 spots and ‘Asian’ increased by 22. The U.K.’s top trending search of 2018 was ‘elastigirl’ (from the Incredibles movie), along with a 128% increase in searches for dating app ‘Tinder’ themed content. Visitors from the U.K. continue to show interest in celebrities, with ‘celebrity’ searches growing by 83% and reality show ‘Love Island’ becoming a top trending search throughout the later half 2018.
Riley Reid moved up to become the most searched for pornstar in the U.K. and Brandi Love surpassed Lisa Ann. When compared to the rest of the world, visitors from the U.K. are 43% more likely to view ‘Mature’ videos, 28% more into ‘Bondage’ and 23% more into ‘Celebrity’.
India
India’s interest in homegrown porn continued with most of the top searches containing the words ‘indian’ or ‘hindi’. School was on everyone’s mind as ‘indian college girls’ moved into second place, and searches for ‘hot sexy teacher’ grew by 423%. Sunny Leone and Mia Khalifa remained the most searched for pornstars in India for the second year. Compared to the worldwide average, visitors from India are 315% more likely to view ‘Behind the Scenes’ videos, 152% more for ‘Arab’ and 128% more for ‘College’.
Japan
Pornhub’s continued push to provide international translations was evident as more Japanese characters made their way into Japan’s top searches for 2018. Localized searches for ‘milf’, ‘mature’, ‘masturbate’ and ‘blowjob’ all saw big increases, supplanting their English versions. Japanese pornstar Ai Uehara remained Japan’s most searched, followed by new favorites Lexi Belle and Amanda Love. Japanese visitors are 300% more likely to view ‘Hentai’ and 194% more into ‘Cosplay’ when compared to the rest of the world.
Canada
‘MILF’ replaced ‘lesbian’ as Canada’s most searched term in 2018, with ‘Chinese’, ‘JOI’ (jerk of instructions) and ‘big ass’ also making significant gains into the top 10. Searches for ‘anime’ grew by 91%, as well as a 74% increase for ‘ASMR’ (autonomous sensory meridian response) and 60% for ‘BBC’ (big black cock).
Riley Reid became Canada’s most searched for pornstar up from 3rd in 2017, a position now populated by their Northern neighbor’s presidential pornstar Stormy Daniels. When compared to the rest of the world, Canadians are 60% more likely to view the ‘Asian’ category, 41% more into ‘Threesome’ and 10% more into ‘Popular With Women’.
France
Homegrown porn remained popular in France for another year, with ‘francaise’, ‘french’ and ‘maman francaise’ continuing as the top 3 searches. ‘Mature francaise’ grew by 27 spots, as well as ‘francais’ by 11. France’s top trending term was the video game ‘Fortnite’, along with a 474% growth in searches for ‘tele realite’ (reality tv). Clara Morgane became France’s most searched for pornstar in 2018, as former top choice Kim Kardashian dropped below the top 10. Visitors from France are 93% more likely to view the ‘Arab’ category and 80% more into ‘Cuckold’ when compared to the rest of the world.
Germany
Germany’s top searches remain as ‘German’ and ‘Deutsch’ for another year, while ‘anal’, ‘lesbian’ and ‘massage’ all moved up several spots into the top 10. Perhaps the stereotype of traveling German backpackers has some truth, as ‘airbnb’ searches grew by nearly 600% in 2018. German pornstar Lucy Cat was once again Germany’s most searched pornstar, with fellow German Lexy Roxx also making the top 5. Compared to the rest of the world, Germans are 121% more likely to view ‘Pissing’ videos, 117% more into watching ‘Fetish’, 108% more for ‘Feet’ and 88% more into ‘Bondage’.
Italy
After making big gains in 2017, ‘amatoriale Italiano’ (Italian amateur) remained as Italy’s most searched term for a second year. ‘Italiana’ moved up 5 spots to take 2nd place, and ‘lesbian’ gained 10 to reach 5th. Like many other parts of the world, ‘big tits’ made big gains in Italy moving up 14 spots in 2018. Perhaps influenced by the release of the movie Cosa Fai A Capodanno, searches for ‘scambio di coppia’ (couple swapping) saw an increase of more than 1000% in 2018. Check out our Italian Swingers Insights for more details on that trend.
Rocco Siffredi remained the most searched pornstar in Italy for a second year, followed by fellow Italian Valentina Nappi. Italians are proportionately 61% more likely view the ‘Mature’ category, 41% more into ‘Transgender’ and 35% more into ‘MILF’ when compared to the rest of the world.
Australia
Australia’s top searches remained solid for another year, including terms like ‘lesbian’, ‘MILF’, ‘Asian’ and ‘hentai’. The rank of ‘Japanese’ increased by 12 spots to become Australia’s 8th most searched term in 2018. Video game ‘Fortnite’ was once again a top trending term, along with a 225% increase for ‘Japanese uncensored’ and 146% for dating app ‘Tinder’.
Kim Kardashian dropped from Australia’s top pornstar searches to make way for Brandi Love, Mia Khalifa and Lana Rhoades. Compared to elsewhere in the world, Australians are 94% more likely to view the ‘Asian’ category and are 25% more into ‘Popular With Women’ videos.
Philippines
‘Pinay’ remained the most searched term in the Philippines for the 3rd year, with no changes to the top 6 searches. ‘Japanese wife’ grew by 12 spots to become the 8th most searched term of 2018. Searches for ‘Japanese’ grew by 88% in popularity over the last year, along with an 81% increase in ‘anime hentai uncensored’.
Japanese/Canadian pornstar Maria Ozawa remained the most popular in the Philippines for the 3rd year. Compared to elsewhere in the world, visitors from the Philippines are 124% more likely to watch ‘Reality’ videos, 113% more into ‘Hentai’ and 106% more into ‘Asian’.
Mexico
‘Hentai’ moved up 3 positions to replace ‘Mexicana’ as the most searched term in Mexico in 2018. Searches for the game ‘Fortnite’ made it to 6th place, knocking down Mexico’s previous gaming favorite ‘Overwatch’ below the top 20. Searches for ‘hentai sin censura’ (hentai uncensored) grew by 205% and gained 65 spots to reach 8th in overall popularity. ‘Lesbianas tijeras’ (lesbians scissoring) grew by 360%, along with a 283% increase in ‘squirting orgasm’.
Social media personality and adult performer Lena the Plug topped Mexico’s people searches in 2018, while Mia Khalifa remained in 2nd place, followed by Lana Rhoades and Riley Reid. When compared to the rest of the world, Mexican visitors are 83% more likely to view the ‘school’ category, 54% more into ‘Old/Young’ videos and 24% more into ‘Hentai’.
Brazil
‘Hentai’ and ‘Lesbian’ both moved up 2 positions to replace ‘Overwatch’ and ‘Brasil’ as the most searched terms in Brazil for 2018. While ‘Overwatch’ did remain in Brazil’s top 4 terms, the game ‘Fortnite’ was a top trending term and moved just outside the top 10 overall searches. Curiosity towards ‘ASMR’ (autonomous sensory meridian response) videos increased 133% in popularity over the course of the year and reached 10th overall.
Alexis Texas replaced Kid Bengal as Brazil’s most searched pornstar, while Mia Khalifa and Vivi Fernandez remained in the top 5. Brazil’s top 5 most viewed categories remained the same but when compared to the rest of the world, Brazilians are 57% more likely to watch ‘Transgender’ videos, 32% more into ‘Cartoon’ and 29% more into ‘Babysitter’.
Spain
Several searches made big gains in Spain to throw the previous favorite search term ‘Spanish’ out of the top 10. Homegrown porn remained popular, with ‘maduras espanolas’ (mature spanish), ‘Made in Canarias’ (a Pornhub model) and ‘porno en espagnol’ all in the top 10. Video game ‘Fortnite’ was a top trending search, causing it to be the 6th most popular search overall. All sorts of female-on-female action saw increased popularity in Spain with ‘lesbianas espanolas’, ‘lesbianas’ and ‘lesbian’ all making the top trending terms list.
Jordi El Nino Polla topped the list of most searched for pornstars, perhaps no surprise as he was born and raised in Spain. ‘Threesome’ entered Spain’s top 5 categories, replacing last year’s ‘Big Tits’. When compared to elsewhere in the world, visitors from Spain are 62% more into ‘Mature’ videos, 42% more into ‘Anal’ and 28% more into ‘Transgender’.
Poland
‘Polish’ remained Poland’s number one search for the 5th year, while ‘Polska’ moved up 15 spots and ‘Polskie’ by 2 to make up the top 3 searches for 2018. Other homegrown searches with big increases included ‘Poland’ up 8, ‘Polish amateur’ up 9 and ‘Polski sex’ up 29 spots. Video game ‘Fortnite’ was a top trending search, but ‘Overwatch’ remained a more popular search in 2018. Searches for ‘duze cycki’ (big tits) grew in popularity by 232% and ‘MILF’ by 28%.
Elsa Jean was Poland’s top pornstar search, moving up from 3rd place in 2017. When compared to the rest of the world, visitors from Poland are 60% more likely to view the ‘Orgy’ category and 45% more into ‘Mature’ and ‘Gangbang’.
Netherlands
After taking first place in 2017, ‘Dutch’ remained the most popular search in the Netherlands for a second year, while ‘MILF’ swapped with ‘lesbian’ for 2nd. ‘Public’ moved up 10 spots, and ‘trans’ by 9. Homegrown searches for ‘Nederland’ increased by 51% in 2018, along with a 48% increase for ‘Latina’ and 46% for ‘Dutch’. The top 5 most viewed categories remained the same, but Stormy Daniels overtook Kim Kardashian as the Netherlands most searched for pornstar. When compared to other countries, Dutch visitors are 62% more likely to watch ‘Bondage’ videos, 42% more into ‘Outdoor’ and 26% more into ‘Orgy’.
Ukraine
With Ukraine moving into our top 20 countries for the first time, it’s clear that much of their traffic growth came from entirely new visitors, as evidenced by the number of changes to their top searches over the last year. ‘Anime’ grew by 367% and gained 40 spots to become the number one search, followed by simply ‘sex’ which moved up 380. ‘Russian’ remained a popular search in the Ukraine followed by ‘Russian MILF’ which grew by 265% and gained 56 spots to make the top 10 searches.
Sasha Grey and Elsa Jean were the most searched for pornstars in the Ukraine. When compared to the rest of the world, visitors from Ukraine are 118% more likely to view ‘Fisting’, 113% more into ‘Hentai’ and 79% more into ‘Cartoon’.
Sweden
‘Swedish’ remained Sweden’s top search for another year, while ‘MILF’, ‘lesbian’ and ‘Svensk’ all gained a few positions into the top 5. Searches for ‘public’ moved up 8 spots, ‘gangbang’ by 7 and ‘big tits’ by 12. Video game ‘Fortnite’ was a top trending search, causing it to moved into Sweden’s top 10 overall searches. ‘Swedish dirty talk’ grew by 348% in popularity, ‘public masturbation’ by 137% and ‘big natural tits’ by 103%.
Nicole Aniston moved up to become Sweden’s most searched pornstar in 2018, followed by Mia Khalifa and Mia Malkova. When compared to the rest of the world, Swedish visitors are 56% more likely to view ‘Anal’ videos, 43% more into ‘Old/Young’ and 35% more into ‘Bondage’.
Argentina
Only ‘Argentina’ remained unmoved in Argentina’s top searches for 2018 with ‘famosas argentinas’ (famous) and ‘argentina casero’ (homemade) moved up 13 and 11 spots respectively. Video game Fornite was a top trending search, becoming the 5th most popular overall in 2018. ‘Trans’ searches grew 645% in popularity, ‘lesbianas tijeras’ (lesbians scissoring) grew 456% and ‘Dragon Ball Z’ by 176%.
Jordi El Nino Polla was once again Argentina’s most popular pornstar, while Alexis Texas and Riley Reid both joined the top 5. When compared to the rest of the world, Argentinians are 54% more likely to view ‘Anal’ videos, 48% more into ‘Transgender’ and 38% more into ‘Mature’.
Russia
‘Hentai’ grew 51% and moved up 2 spots in 2018 to replace ‘Russian’ as the top search in Russia. ‘Big ass’ grew 67% and gained 12 spots to become the 8th most popular search, while ‘cuckold’ increased by 305% and moved up 26 spots to become the 12th most popular search. Check out our Cuckold Insights for more details on the search trend. While video game ‘Fortnite’ was a top trending search, it wasn’t able to replace ‘Overwatch’ as the game search preferred by Russian visitors and their number 3 most popular search overall.
Sasha Grey continued on for her 5th year as Russia’s most search for pornstar, as Allison Parker and Madison Ivy joined her in the top 3. When compared to the rest of the world, Russians are 134% more likely to view the ‘Webcam’ category, 124% more into ‘Cartoon’ and twice as likely to view ‘Cosplay’.
South Africa
‘Black South African’ remained the top search term, as ‘White South African’ moved up 122 spots to also take a place in South Africa’s top searches. Other homegrown searches like ‘South African’, ‘Mzansi’ (slang for referring to South Africa), ‘Afrikaans’ and ‘Cape Town’ also saw significant gains. When compared to the rest of the world, South Africans are 112% more likely to view the ‘Ebony’ category, 71% more into ‘Babysitter’ and 70% more into ‘Squirt’.
Beyond the Top 20
Below you will find some additional data on countries and regions that didn’t quite make our Top 20 traffic sites.
Austria
Austria maintained it’s rank of 35th most trafficked country to Pornhub, but time on site grew by nearly half a minute since 2017. The proportion of female viewers grew to 30% from 24% in 2017. The most searched term in Austria was ‘deutsche nachbarin’ (German neighbor) which moved up an impressive 98 positions over the last 12 months. Interestingly, searches for ‘schnick schnack schnuck’ (rock paper scissors) grew by 1168% compared to 2017. Lexy Roxx replaced Lucy Cat as the most searched pornstar. When compared to the rest of the world, Austrians are 60% more likely to view the Uniforms category.
Greece
Greece ranked 27th worldwide for traffic to Pornhub, with an average visit time of 11 minutes and 2 seconds. 27% of Greek visitors are female, just behind the worldwide average of 27%. While “greek” remained the most searched for term for a third year, we saw other localized searches like “greek amateur”, “greek pornstars”, “homemade greek” and “greek anal” make big gains in 2018. When compared to elsewhere in the world, Greek visitors are 144% more likely to view the Feet category, and 59% more into Anal videos.
Iceland
Iceland ranks just 109th worldwide for traffic to Pornhub, but has a rather large proportion of female visitors at 34% when compared to the world average of 29%. The most searched for term is “Iceland”, with “Icelandic” gaining 7 while “Icelandic girl” fell 6 spots in 2018. One of the year’s top gaining terms was “trans” which grew by over 400%. When compared to the rest of the world, visitors from Iceland are 91% more likely to view the Anal category, 53% more into Orgy and 50% more into Bondage videos.
Belarus
Belarus ranks 61st for traffic to Pornhub, with an average visit time of 9 minutes 43 seconds. The proportion of female users is 8 percentage points higher than the world average at 37%. “Squirt” became the most searched for term in Belarus for 2018, moving up an impressive 16 positions followed by “Russian homemade” up 6 positions. Hentai remains the most viewed category in Belarus, while growing 124% in popularity over the past year. Visitors from Belarus are 283% more likely to view the Russian category, 131% more into Fisting and 117% more into Cartoon videos.
Cyprus
Cyprus ranks 87th worldwide for traffic to Pornhub, far ahead of their population rank of only 159th. The average Cypriot spends 10 minutes and 38 seconds visiting the site, with 35 of visits coming from women. The most searched for term remains “Greek”, although the popularity more than doubled in the last year by 112%. Other trending searches included “Russian” which increased in popularity by 779% compared to 2017, and “footjob” by 671%. The most searched for pornstar was Lisa Ann and the most viewed category was Lesbian. Visitors from Cyprus are 77% more likely to view the Russian category when compared to other countries, and 53% more into Feet videos.
Colombia
Colombia ranks 26th worldwide for traffic to Pornhub, with 33% of visitors female and the average visitor spending 9 minutes and 27 seconds. “Colombiana” remains the most searched for term, followed by “hentai” which moved up 7 positions since 2017. Searches for “public” increased by over 300% in the last year, along with a 281% increase in “lesbianas”. Colombia’s most searched for pornstar is Esperanza Gomez, and the most viewed category remains Lesbian for a fourth year. When compared to other countries, visitors from Colombia are 99% more likely to view the Latina category and 53% more into School videos.
City of Detroit, Michigan
Within the United States, the city of Detroit ranks 24th for traffic to Pornhub, and 59th among cities worldwide. 28% of visitors from Detroit are female, matching the national average, but time on site is nearly 2 minutes longer at 12 minutes 3 seconds. The most searched for term in the city of Detroit is “ebony”, followed by “lesbian” and “ebony lesbians”. Searches for “smoking” increased by 105% and moved up 28 spots to become Detroit’s 6th most searched term. When compared to other parts of the United States, the Ebony category is 175% more popular in Detroit and BBW videos are 45% more popular.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria ranks 52nd worldwide for traffic coming to Pornhub, with the average visitor spending 10 minutes 52 seconds and 34% being female. The top searches remain “bulgarian” and “bulgaria”, with big gains from other terms like “big ass” up 1584% and “public” up 1039%. The most viewed category is Anal, and Bulgarians are 122% more likely to view the Russian category and 98% more into Double Penetration videos when compared to the rest of the world.
Although Finland’s ranks 116th worldwide for population, it turns in respectable rank of 38th for traffic to Pornhub. 34% of visitors from Finland are female, which is well ahead of the worldwide average of 29%. “Lesbian” is Finland’s most searched term and also the most viewed category. Searches for their fellow countrymen and women are up, with “suomi” up 5 positions to 3rd and “finland” up 13 to 4th. Searches for “finnish mature” grew 361% compared to 2017. When compared to elsewhere in the world, visitors from Finland are 75% more likely to view Bondage videos, 70% more into Fetish and 52% more into Toys.
