Super Bowl XLIX was packed with many now memorable moments. There was that rather questionable play call during the game’s final moments, the brawl, the giant tiger transformer that Katy Perry rode in on, all of which was capped off by Gisele Bündchen’s husband taking home the award for MVP. Here at Pornhub and YouPorn HQ, what we will remember forever about 2015’s big game is how our traffic stats were affected. As we have seen during other sporting events such as the recent CFB Playoff game or the World Cup, traffic changes surrounding a major sporting event tend to cause a pattern resembling an upside down parabola. This year’s Super Bowl affected traffic on both Pornhub and YouPorn in this same way but let’s take a closer look at some of the specifics.
Let’s start with an overall look at how the game affected traffic stats on a national level. When we compare the United States with Canada and the rest of the World, it seems that the biggest dip occurred between 8-9 pm mark in the US, with a 28% drop. To the north, Canada also experienced it’s most significant drop during this time, though it would appear that the rest of the world wasn’t as interested in watching Katy Perry fly around the University of Phoenix Stadium on a drone during her half time performance, as traffic was virtually unaffected internationally during this time.
The world appears to have tuned for some pregame and kick off action with the most significant lull in traffic occurring between 6 and 7 pm EST, and peaking a little prematurely between 9 and 10pm at 4%. Both Canada and the US saw the game through until the 10:07pm end time and traffic spikes of 7% and 9% respectively were observed just after the game ended.
Unsurprisingly, these traffic changes become more drastic when we hone in on the states involved in the game. Host state Arizona saw it’s maximum traffic drop just before kick off at 6 pm, though the most significant pregame traffic increases were noted here, peaking at 13% at 3pm. Comparatively, this same time marks when traffic began to steadily decrease in both Massachusetts and Washington, only recovering again after the game ended. After 10pm, New England fans took to Pornhub to celebrate the big win, with traffic increasing as much as 33% in the hours after the game ended, but dipping back down towards average levels as of about 1am. Seahawks fans were apparently licking their wounds elsewhere, as traffic only increased by about 14% once the final score was announced, and decreased steadily immediately afterwards.
Comparable patterns can be observed when we take a look at traffic changes on a metropolitan level. Again, host city Phoenix appears to have been the least affected of all though traffic levels did dip during the game, with the biggest drop at 21% having been recorded right around kick off time. Phoenix also saw the most pregame action with that buildup stress getting released to the tune of 13% maximum traffic spikes in the host city around 3pm. Boston and Seattle were getting into the zone around this time, marking the start of major traffic drops on both sides. Across the board, a slight relief from these overall game time traffic dips is noted around the mid-game mark when Ms. Perry was putting on her highly anticipated half time show which proved to be devoid of any nip slips. Despite the lack of wardrobe malfunctions, she did seem to do a pretty good job in getting the masses riled up, as these numbers suggest that viewers rubbed a quick one out then tuned back in for the last 2 quarters.
Though Seattle’s peak drop of 49% between 8-9 pm is considerably less than their max drop of 61% during the 2014 Super Bowl, Boston takes another win with their 56% traffic drop during the last hour of the game proving to be the most significant of all. Interestingly, Phoenix is the city where the post-game festivities raged the hardest on the best site in the world, increasing steadily from midnight onwards and peaking at 31%, compared to Seattle’s 14% at 11 after which traffic decreased steadily and winning Boston’s 1am 23% peak.
And that’s a wrap for Super Bowl XLIX. Congrats to the Pats and way to go on that stellar comeback Missy Elliott! Here’s Pornhub Aria with some well wishes for the winning team
Great insights as always!
Thanks very much!
It would have been a bit more interesting if you could run minute by minute on the Superbowl with the Pornhub traffic. It seems that the Pats fans didn’t give up hope, as their Pornhub traffic numbers were still significantly down after halftime. Yet Seattle fans seemed to behave like Richard Sherman, thinking they had the game won at 24 -14, so returned to their Pornhub site in greater numbers than Boston fans.