The Searches that Defined 2024
One of the best parts of doing our Year in Review Insights is gathering all the data and sifting through billions of visits to see what defined the tastes of the year. Often these tastes are defined by pop culture, world events, and changing attitudes toward sexuality. What you will find here is not strictly a Pornhub thing, it is synonymous with mainstream media as well. The way people interact with external factors of their lives inevitably trickles into their porn consumption, and looking at these trends speaks to a year ripe with cultural shifts.
5.
The anime craze continues for the fourth year in a row. People can’t get enough of author-created and generated content. Animated characters have become part of everyday culture, from the TV shows and movies we watch, to the anime style characters featured in illustrations and popular video games. It’s no surprise then, that people are seeking out animated and 3D content on Pornhub as well. With “hentai” as the world’s #1 search, the term “anime” also rose +4 spots to become the 7th top term of the year.
Searches for animation this year grew by +28% and searches containing “3D” were up +19%. As far as top gaining searches went, “realistic animated” was up +78%, “gay animated” was up +23%, and “rule 34 animated” was up +15%. For those who are unfamiliar, rule 34 refers to the porn version of something, such as video game characters or comic book characters who are typically unassociated with porn.
6.
If you weren’t living under a rock this year, you no doubt heard the phrase, “Hawk Tuah” — an instant, viral hit that took pop culture by storm. Sexually charged, pleasantly shocking, and all-around fun, the woman behind the phrase, Haliey Welch, became an overnight sensation when she answered the question, “What’s one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time?”
We don’t need to tell you what it means, as you no doubt already know, but searches for spit blew up. The viral sensation resulted in 10 million “hawk tuah” searches on Pornhub.
“Again, this fascination or interest is driven by what is popular in culture.” Said Dr. Laurie Betito. “The Hawk Tuah girl viral video showcases an ordinary girl talking about sex. I believe this is the appeal – unfiltered, candid, and spontaneous –
in other words: real.”
The term “spit on dick” saw a massive increase of +233%, searches for “spitting” were up +28%, and searches for “sloppy blowjob” rose +36%.
2024’s Most Searched for Terms
For the fourth year in a row, “hentai” was the most searched for term, topping the list in 2024. All over the world people are showing increasing interest in this type of content, which can include video game characters, anime style characters, and 3D animation, to name a few. For the first time ever, “hentai” was the most searched term in the USA, taking the top spot from “lesbian,” which reigned supreme in
2023, 2022, 2019, and
2017.
Much like “hentai,” the term “milf” held its place in 2nd yet again this year. Viewers love a sexy, empowered mature woman who isn’t afraid to get what she wants, and the data proves that. The term “milf” consistently ranks in the top 3, often in competition with “lesbian” and “hentai” for the top spot.
In 3rd place this year was “pinay” which bumped “lesbian” down to 4th place. The term “pinay” rose +2 places compared to last year, earning its place in the Top 3 for the first time ever. The word Pinay is a noun for a woman of Filipino origin or decent. The popularity of the term is likely in part due to the increasing number of viewers coming from the Philippines, which accounted for the 3rd most amount of traffic to Pornhub this year.
The State of the Union
A Time for Reflection
The average time spent per visit was down –29 seconds, making the average engagement time per visit 9 minutes and 40 seconds. We’re looking at you, 18-24 age group. Their average visit was –76 seconds below the average, but who can blame them? Those in the 65+ age group spent +83 seconds more than average, so it all kind of evens itself out.
When our statisticians broke it down by country, Mexico spent the most time per visit to Pornhub, with an average of 11 minutes and 1 second. Next was the Netherlands, who spent an average of 10 minutes and 51 seconds. And in third was the United States, where visitors came and went in 10 minutes and 37 seconds.
Poland was down at the bottom, lasting an average of 8 minutes and 35 seconds per visit. Following Poland was Peru, whose average visit lasted 8 minutes and 39 seconds. After Peru, Brazil averaged 8 minutes and 45 seconds per visit.
Overall, female visitors spent +17 seconds longer per visit compared to male visitors.
The age groups varied, with 25-34 year olds lasting –24 seconds below average and the 35-44 age group lasting –2 seconds below average. Once the 45-54 age group comes in, they spent +25 seconds more than average and the 54-64 year old age group lasted +69 seconds longer. Nice.
Would you look at that, in 2024, traffic in the United States lasted a whole 46 seconds longer than last year! 10 minutes and 37 seconds was the average visit duration in the United States this year, up 46 seconds from 2024. Give yourself a pat on the back!
The state that spent the most amount of time on average was Alaska, lasting 11 minutes and 4 seconds. The next two states were tied, with Connecticut and Wisconsin both averaging 10 minutes and 46 seconds. When our statisticians looked for the states with the quickest visits, they found Louisiana to be shortest, at 9 minutes and 18 seconds. In a close second and third shortest visit, Wyoming averaged 9 minutes and 40 seconds and Vermont lasted 9 minutes and 41 seconds.
As far as duration changes went, Washington saw an increase of +66 seconds on average from last year, Oregon saw a +58 second increase, and Alaska jumped +55 seconds. As for those that went down, Rhode Island spent a whole minute less on average, down –64 seconds. Delaware was down –57 seconds and Mayland was down –60 seconds.
When were people’s favorite times to watch porn this year? Our statisticians found out! As you might expect, when looking at the weekly average, the lowest points were around 5 and 6 a.m. but it remained below average from 3 a.m. to 1 p.m. throughout the week. By 2 p.m. the traffic starts to come in a bit, perhaps as people are taking their lunch breaks and sneaking a quickie in, before the curve starts to dip again at 5 p.m., when people are heading home from work or preparing their meal for the evening.
At 9 p.m., the numbers go up again, climbing higher every hour until midnight, when traffic reaches its peak. As is well documented, orgasms improve the quality of your sleep, reduce the stress of a long day, and alleviate any pain you may have, making it the perfect thing to do before bed.
Digging a little deeper and breaking it down by day,
our statisticians found the time with the lowest amount of traffic on Pornhub was Tuesday morning at 5 a.m. and
the time with the highest traffic was 11 p.m. on Monday night. In general, the least popular day was Friday, which comes as no surprise since it’s the start of the weekend and people want to go out and enjoy themselves. However, the most popular day is Monday, when people are settling in for the week and looking to take a load off.
And finally, our statisticians reported that the world came together the most at 10 p.m. on August 27th – the time when the traffic was highest throughout the entire year!
Categorical Analysis
The topmost popular categories don’t often change much year to year. Lesbian, MILF, and Anal are often in the top 5, swapping spots with each other every year. In 2024, MILF soared to the most viewed category of the year, up +4 spots from 5th in 2023. Anal rose +2 spots as well, going from 4th in 2023 to 2nd in 2024. The Japanese category dropped one spot, from 2nd in 2023 to 3rd in 2024.
Sexual Wellness Center contributor,
Courtney Warren Brame, who is a is a yoga-informed emotional wellness practitioner and who also runs the nonprofit organization, Something Positive for Positive People, said “MILF being the most viewed category sort of deconstructs this idea that men are attracted to youth and fertility according to the manosphere and red pill content.”
Interestingly, the Lesbian category this year saw its first drop out of 1st place in a couple years. It was the top category in 2023 and 2022. Overall, it’s an extremely popular category and a common fantasy amongst straight men, who make up a large portion of viewers on Pornhub.
This year saw big jumps in interest. The Verified Amateurs category rose +10 spots this year. Public jumped +8 spots, Babe rose +6, Brazilian was up +9 spots, and French rose +12. As mentioned, with the Olympics taking place in Paris this past summer, the French were on many people’s minds, and it shows they wanted to see a little more of them than what was on TV.
Next, our statisticians pulled the data for the world’s most viewed categories. In Canada and Australia, they continued to enjoy women loving women, like last year, where Lesbian was their most viewed category. In the US and many parts of Africa, Ebony was yet again their most viewed category this year.
The popularity of the Anal category moved around a little this year. In Russia and many countries in south and west South America, Anal was their top category. Last year, Anal dominated many parts of Europe and Greenland. This year, Greenland was more into Lesbian and most of Europe was loving the MILF category.
The Japanese category was popular in many parts of Asia this year. North Africa was into the Arab category. And the French were in love with themselves, as were their neighbors in Italy, where Italian was the most viewed category. In Brazil, they loved their own as well, with Brazilian being their most viewed category.
A dam good read!