PornHub Report Part #1: Terms that Defined 2019
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PornHub is an industry giant. They completely changed adult entertainment forever by creating what is likely the largest digital porn depository in the universe. They allow ad-supported free access to their site and a super low-cost premium subscription option. However, it isn’t just their impressive archive that’s proven revolutionary. Their data collection has given us information about industry trends, and arguably human sexuality, in a way unprecedented in all of history.
On that note, they’ve just released their latest annual Year in Review, filled with highlights and insights about the biggest porn trends of 2019. You can see Pornhub's full report, but in the coming weeks, we’ll bringing you all the highlights, as well as our analysis of their data.
This week, we’re focused on discussing what PornHub describes as the “Search Terms that defined 2019.” Unfortunately, pornhub hasn’t been 100% transparent about what they mean by this. However, looking at the rest of their data, it seems like they used a combination of their most popular search terms and terms that shot up dramatically this year to create this list. It seems like they’ve also taken into account related search terms that didn’t quite make the list individually, but when aggregated, imply trends that are generally on the rise.
So what are these year defining terms? In PornHub’s expert opinion, they are:
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Amateur
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Alien
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POV
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Belle Daphine
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Cosplay
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Mature
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Bisexual
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Apex Legends
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ASMR
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Femdom
#1 on the list is a good example of aggregated search terms implying a trend. By themselves, terms like “amateur” and “real” didn’t quite make the top search term, but when combined, they imply some important trends. It appears that people are increasingly interested in what they think of as more realistic depictions of sex.
The term “alien” shot up in popularity when the news started reporting that people were planning to “storm” area 51. The event, which took place in September received a ton of media hype. It was covered by all the major news outlets and millions responded to the Facebook event set up to encourage the masses to storm the security gates at this secure military facility. However, when the day actually came, only a couple dozen people showed up and no one actually tried to enter the mysterious site, said to house classified information of human-alien encounters. However, while the actual “storming” may have been a bit underwhelming, it apparently got millions of people all hot and bothered, thinking about sexy aliens, so it couldn’t have been a total loss.
POV has risen up the ranks as more people gain access to virtual reality technologies. Most virtual reality porn is shot in POV. It has even become popular in many reality porn formats that don’t use VR and is generally considered more immersive for the viewer.
Belle Daphine is a famous cosplayer, gamer girl, and social media influencer. Her association with PornHub began in June, when she promised to create a page there if the post reached 1 million likes on Instagram. It garnered nearly double that amount. She did as promised, but the videos were described as “trolling,” featuring misleading titles and thumbnails, but nothing in the videos that would actually be described as pornographic. Just a month later, she started selling “Gamer Girl Bath Water,” supposedly the remnants of her own baths for people to have for “sentimental purposes.” Unlike her PornHub channel, fans loved the bathwater and the first run sold out almost immediately.
You shouldn’t be to surprised to find Cosplay on this list given that Belle Daphine and Aliens and have also made it into the top 5. Mature porn is also fairly straight forward and not terribly surprising. Bisexual porn has become more popular as society is general is more accepting of LGBT sex. We can expect all of these to continue to rise in popularity in the years to come.
Apex Legends is a popular online game. Huge games, in general, seem to have a big effect on PornHubs’ search patterns. Last year, Fortnite had a significant impact on their traffic. The year before, it was Overwatch.
ASMR stands out as being one of the more strange terms on this list. I’m not going to lie, I had to google it myself. Apparently, it is a bizarre new phenomenon where people seek out certain sounds and role-playing scenarios hoping to trigger “head tingles,” which have been likened to orgasms for your scalp.
Lastly, Femdom is trending as more people are lusting after women in power. Since 2016, there has been a ton of media coverage of women demanding equal pay, freedom from sexual harassment, better representation in the media, medical research, and government. Female power has gone mainstream and it seems to be affecting our porn preferences.
This list of porn trends seems to represent 3 main desires. Some want to see more authentic, realistic depictions of sex featuring people who more closely resemble those they are attracted to in real life. People looking for amateur, mature and possibly even femdom porn likely fall into those camps.
On the other end of the spectrum, escapism is still popular in porn. This is clearly represented by searches for alien, cosplay, Belle Daphne, and Apex Legends. People searching for this type of porn are looking for an immersive roleplay, fantasy experience, far removed from reality.
Speaking of immersive, people searching for POV and ASMR are looking for a full-body experience. This kind of engagement is only possible due to modern advances in technology, which allow viewers to really feel like they are part of the experience. In some ways, this sort of combines the previous two camps in that it is considered by many to be a more authentic, realistic experience but it also allows you to explore fantasy worlds in a way never before possible.
Keep an eye out for our upcoming articles that will dive into PornHub's most popular search terms, pornstars, who’s watching the most porn and other emerging trends in 2019!