On July 10, Portugal became the Euro 2016 champions after defeating France 1-0 in the final match of the series. Fans in Portugal, France and indeed all of Europe and the world were glued to their screens as the two teams faced off in a heated match. In the past, Pornhub has seen major traffic fluctuations during events like the Superbowl and NHL and NBA finals, so our friends at LAD Bible asked our statisticians to see what effect the Euro finals may have had.
During the match, traffic in Portugal plummeted 66% compared to an average Sunday. We also found a 54% traffic drop in France, and 22% across all of Europe. Portugal’s traffic drop peaked at 78% below average at 23h CET. When Eder’s goal ended the match, traffic began to climb immediately in France, reaching nearly 60% above average in the hours following. Portugal’s fans were clearly too busy celebrating, as traffic there recovered much more slowly. At 3h CET, traffic in Portugal was more than 20% above average for that time of day.
On the day of the match, it seems that Pornhub visitors had both France and Portugal on their minds. When we looked at searches for those countries, we were surprised to find that the highest search increases were from opposing sides. While people in France only searched 2% more for videos featuring their fellow countrymen, Portugal’s visitors had a 51% higher interest in seeing French people.
But that’s nothing compared to France’s interest in Portugal. Searches for Portugal and Portuguese shot up 730% in France on July 10. Interest was high everywhere, as people across Europe searched 121% more, and the world showed a 166% increase in videos from Portugal.
Fans had football on their mind even when they did find time to visit Pornhub on the day of the final. Searches containing the terms “football” or “soccer” were up 202% in France, 222% in Portugal, 37% in Europe and 18% worldwide.
Compared to daily averages, the search term that increased the most was “football girl” up 103%, followed by “football player” up 90%, “soccer” up 70% and “football” up 67%.
To see how traffic changes compared, we also looked at traffic during the two Euro 2016 semi-final matches. On July 6, we saw a 38% traffic drop from Portugal during their match against Wales, where traffic was also down 26%. Across Europe, traffic for this semi-final was about half as much as the final match.
On July 7, France played Germany in their semi-final, and Pornhub traffic in both countries was down to nearly half the usual level. It seems that visitors from across Europe had much more interest seeing France and Germany play, as our European traffic was down 21%, compared to only a 10% drop during the previous day’s semi-final.
We hope you enjoyed this edition of Pornhub Insights. Are you willing to give up fap time for clap time supporting your favorite teams? Let us know in the comments!