As the year draws to a close, many of us are taking stock of the 2013 to analyze our actions: what we did well, what we did poorly, what we never want to do again. Our resolutions to bring more (money, happiness, sex, love, chocolate) into our lives really begins in December, when the chaos of Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate, with the exception of Kwanza, which is just beginning) has died to a faint hum. Just as we are putting away the tinsel and breaking out the adventure-abacus, so too are organizations and companies taking inventory of how to move forward.
Porn Hub is no exception. Releasing it’s annual “Year in Review” report, the world’s most popular free porn site has tallied its statistics for 2013, and the results are staggering. The website saw more than fourteen billion views this year, with over a million views per hour, all year round. These statistics also listed most-visited days of the week, months of the year, and most often-searched porn terms per country. What they found may astound you!
According to Porn Hub’s research, Americans watch pornstars longer than any other population on the planet (at least those who have access, and also those who frequent Porn Hub’s massive inventory—PH may be the most popular, with shout-outs on Joseph Gordan Levitt’s recent film Don Jon, but it is far from the only site out there). Whereas most other Western countries zero in on the eight to nine minute range of porn-viewing time, Americans spend an average of ten minutes, thirty-nine seconds watching porn, almost a full minute longer than rivaling UK, who came in second place at nine minutes, forty-five seconds.
The Huffington Post broke it down even further, by discussing the length of porn watched on a per-state basis:“According to Pornhub, which is one of the Web's largest porn sites, people in Mississippi (11:47), Hawaii (11:36) and Arkansas (11:32) spent the most time, per average session, watching porn on the site. In contrast, residents of Rhode Island, Vermont and New Hampshire had the shortest porn-watching sessions.”
Why are people in New England watching shorter clips of porn than people in the Pacific Island region, or folks across the Mason-Dixon line? Who knows! You would think that all of that East coast winter snowfall would encourage people to stay inside and make themselves cozy in front of the warm, glowing laptop screen. And, on a globally level, this is exactly what people are doing. According to the Year in Review statistics, the most popular time of year for masturbation (assuming that people come to Porn Hub for stimulation, and not just to admire the many cinematic skills of people all over the world) is January, right during the peak of many countries’ most brutal winter times.
There are many possibilities as to why traffic is so high at the beginning of the year. Perhaps alone time was compromised during the month of December, where visiting family and friends put a damper on routine habits. Maybe all of the projects, papers, reports, and yes, data-collection that usually accompanies an end-of-the-year cycle really cramps the sex drive. Whatever it may be, January is the month that Porn Hub sees the highest amount of traffic, with August being the month the site is least-visited. Perhaps August, due to the overall good weather and outdoor opportunities, sees the least visits to websites across the board, as many prepare for new semesters, last-ditch summer trips, and family time.
Porn Hub further explores the spanking habits of global citizens by publishing this interesting tidbit: while Monday appears to be the international day for masturbating (showing more traffic than any other day of the week), Sunday is decidedly a hands-off day for porn.
So it would appear that any time that masturbatory citizens need to drop what they are doing and focus on their families or other obligations (such as during August or Sundays), then visits to the world’s largest porn site steadily decline. However, it also appears that these discerning viewers thrive on beginnings, with traffic increasing on the first day of the week and the first month of the year.
But the question still remains: why are Americans watching porn so much longer than our European counterparts? The statistic is surprising; one would think that Americans, with their notorious short attention spans, would clock in at much shorter viewing times than, say, Germany—a country that boasts an eight-minute average. Whatever it may be, the results are in, and 2013 has been an epic year for porn. As January steadily approaches (break out your toys and lube, friends!), we start on a whole new year of data-collection, begging the question: what will 2014 be like in the world of porn?
