It’s the most wonderful time of the year: PornHub, which received around 15 billion hits in 2013, just released its year-end data.
Earlier this year, the site released info on state-by-state viewing habits and search terms. It showed “teen” and “creampie” were the most-searched terms across the United States, which really put our country’s priorities in perspective. At the end of the year, not much has changed: The top three terms for the U.S. were “teen,” “creampie,” and “MILF.” The top search term worldwide was also teen, followed by MILF, pointing out that age is important, but the turn-on is at two extremes. Usually, women portraying “MILFs” in porn are far removed from what the term means in broader pop culture.
Other countries were a bit more diverse in their searches. In Japan, the top search terms were “Japanese,” “Japanese wife,” and “Japanese MILF,” perhaps pointing to a more traditional or domestic take on pornography. In the U.K., porn star and Sarah Palin impersonator Lisa Ann got a lot of traffic, and her popularity extended to Mexico as well. An actress named Sara Tommasi, who was once part of Silvio Berlusconi’s private-party harem, was popular in Italy. In Spain, “casting” porn was popular. However, the most popular searches in every country but the U.S. were related to that country: German, British, French, Italian, etc.
The most-watched video on PornHub this year: the Farrah Abraham sex tape, which is sort of sad but shows how closely reality TV and porn viewership might be linked. The Walking Dead's season 3 finale in March affected viewership the most, followed by the American Idol finale and the NCIS season 11 debut. So, to recap: zombies, singing contests, and naval crime dramas drew us away from porn this year. Also, the Super Bowl.
Holiday-wise, many users across the globe stopped decking their halls on New Year’s Eve and Christmas Day, perhaps as a reverent observance of the birth of Jesus. Or a bit of guilt. Japan, however, was all in on Christmas. Have they cornered the market on holiday pleasure, or multitasking?
Americans spent more time on the site this year than last (around 10 minutes), while Japan got in and out in around seven minutes. Mississippians continued to stay on the site the longest, followed by Hawaiians. Desktop browsing still dominates worldwide, but mobile and tablet browsing increased in the U.S., U.K., and Mexico. It’ll be interesting to see if the debut of Google Glass changes viewing habits next year, or if everyone's just creeped out by it.
These stats, while interesting, are pretty heteronormative and don’t necessarily represent the more niche or radical porn-watching public. In 2013, the porn industry embraced the rise of Bitcoin, parodied virality and pop culture, and became more of social network. These results are most telling of how culture and world events continue to affect porn viewing.
Photo via Anonymous Account/Flickr