Pornhub Traffic Goes Down On Fallout 4's Money Shot
One of the web's most popular adult video sites saw a significant dip in traffic in the hours after Bethesda released Fallout 4, one of the most anticipated video games of the year. Keeping in mind that correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation, the trend observed is at least interesting, if nothing else.
Adult video site Pornhub said its viewership from gamers dropped 10 percent below its average after Fallout 4 (our review) released on November 10. The decrease in traffic started at around 5 AM, or about the time gamers would have finished downloading and installing the title. The unusual trend continued until around 3 PM, and then dipped way below the average again starting at 6 PM.
If correlation does equate to causation in this case, then the latter decline in traffic would likely be the result of gamers getting home from work and choosing to hop into a nuclear wasteland rather than a world of a different kind of fantasy.
"We can't say we're too surprised with what happened to our traffic during peak gaming hours," Pornhub told GamesBeat. "Based on the data, it looks like a huge surge of people decided to indulge in some wasteland wandering by taking the day off of work and school to play, while the rest of the world had to wade through what we assume were the longest hours of work ever in anticipation of some alone time with their consoles."
Is the trend just a coincidence? Maybe not. Pornhub is specifically noting the decline in gamer-related traffic, not its overall viewership. The site identifies gamers based on anonymized "affinity" statistics from Google Analytics, which looks at a person's web searches and online habits, so there's some real science involved here.
The porn industry doesn't need to sound the alarm. Even if games like Fallout 4 detract from usual trends in viewership, the allure of leather and latex bound mistresses and misters ensures they'll be back. This is also shown in Pornhub's data, which saw up to a 15 percent spike in traffic starting at 11 PM.
Adult video site Pornhub said its viewership from gamers dropped 10 percent below its average after Fallout 4 (our review) released on November 10. The decrease in traffic started at around 5 AM, or about the time gamers would have finished downloading and installing the title. The unusual trend continued until around 3 PM, and then dipped way below the average again starting at 6 PM.
If correlation does equate to causation in this case, then the latter decline in traffic would likely be the result of gamers getting home from work and choosing to hop into a nuclear wasteland rather than a world of a different kind of fantasy.
"We can't say we're too surprised with what happened to our traffic during peak gaming hours," Pornhub told GamesBeat. "Based on the data, it looks like a huge surge of people decided to indulge in some wasteland wandering by taking the day off of work and school to play, while the rest of the world had to wade through what we assume were the longest hours of work ever in anticipation of some alone time with their consoles."
Is the trend just a coincidence? Maybe not. Pornhub is specifically noting the decline in gamer-related traffic, not its overall viewership. The site identifies gamers based on anonymized "affinity" statistics from Google Analytics, which looks at a person's web searches and online habits, so there's some real science involved here.
The porn industry doesn't need to sound the alarm. Even if games like Fallout 4 detract from usual trends in viewership, the allure of leather and latex bound mistresses and misters ensures they'll be back. This is also shown in Pornhub's data, which saw up to a 15 percent spike in traffic starting at 11 PM.
