Pornhub Traffic Change During Super Bowl XLVIII

The Super Bowl, for many men and women in America, is something that can’t be matched by anything else in the world. The Pornhub Insights team has previously studied how major world events affect porn viewing habits. This time around, our number-hungry statisticians eagerly awaited the kick-off of the year’s biggest game, not just to watch the action unfold, but to also see how traffic changed on the world’s biggest porn site.

The traffic drop on Pornhub just prior to the big game showed the level of excitement going on across the entire United States. The two states with the highest traffic drops to Pornhub were of course Colorado State with an 18% drop and Washington State which saw a decrease of 20% – they must have gotten their porn viewing out of the way earlier. The national drop to the site was 6% which is significant for a country of 314 million people!

So, while there’s buzz around the net of The Simpsons having properly predicted the super bowl matchup, almost no one could have predicted the final result. Super Bowl 48 was a display of complete domination by the Seattle Seahawks who completely had their way with the Denver Broncos, worth of the Pornhub BDSM category.

Once the Super Bowl started, Pornhub was an after-thought. With most people watching the game, there was little time left for watching porn. Super Bowl 2014 was broadcast in 198 countries, in more than 25 languages with a reach of over 100 million people, which no doubt helps account for the 29% dip in traffic to Pornhub from the United States, with monster drops of 47% in Denver and 63% for Seattle.

The unfortunate lack of a competitive game provides a great explanation for the post game traffic spikes we saw. When one team handily dismantles another in the championship game, you know from previous insights posts that the losing team’s fans flock to Pornhub to be consoled by Lisa Ann, Christy Mack, Madison Ivy and the rest of our dream team.

In fact, the traffic drops between Denver and Seattle were almost identical from 3pm to 6pm, after which many Denverites began returning to Pornhub for their previously scheduled pleasure time (and guaranteed satisfaction). Even Seattle, with their victory well in hand, took a break at half-time to watch some porn (sorry Bruno Mars!).

When the final whistle blew, we saw positive traffic spikes across the U.S. (4%), in Denver (11%) as well as a 3% rise in Canada, and 1% worldwide. Contrarily, Seattle continued celebrating well into the night with a 17% drop until Midnight, when it returned to Sunday norms.

While the Seattle Seahawks fans are in the midst of pure elation and planning their first ever super bowl parade, the Denver Broncos are left picking up the pieces and wondering what could have been.