Super Bowl 51 has come and gone leaving the New England Patriots victorious over the Atlanta Falcons. The game had over 100 million viewers, and a few ads sparked controversy during one of the most-watched sporting events in the world. But, the impact of football stretched far beyond the field. In fact, according to a new blog post by Pornhub Insights, pornography consumption changed thanks dramatically in part to the Super Bowl.
What is Pornhub?
Pornhub has one of the largest collections of pornography on the Internet. Pornhub launched a decade ago; the company has servers located around the globe. Earlier this year Pornhub revealed the company had 64 million views every day with over 700 page views per second.
How did pornography change during the Super Bowl?
Following the kickoff, traffic across the United States dropped by nearly 30% on the website. However, visits surged 9% above average immediately after the game. Unsurprisingly, the biggest website traffic changes took place in Massachusetts and Georgia reaching as low as -37% below average at one point during the match. Then, once news broke that the New England Patriots were making a comeback, traffic in the Bay area states, dropped by more than 50% below average.
But, the fluctuations in traffic were not the only noticeable changes during the Super Bowl. Pornhub Insights reports that visitors visited the site and searched for very specific types of video content.
“Searches for “Super Bowl” and “Superbowl” were up 2451% on February 5th, along with a 407% increase for “NFL” and a 394% increase for “Football,” Pornhub said.
“Once again “Patriots” won with a 1608% increase for their team name versus 386% for “Falcons.” For many viewers, it was “Lady Gaga” that stole the show with a 598% increase in searches for her name and 2432% for “halftime”.”
This news comes after Pornhub announced the release of free sex education. The website is providing free information about sex topics typically found in a sexual education course.