That total eclipse thing totally messed with porn traffic
The sun wasn’t the only thing eclipsed by the moon yesterday.
Porn traffic took a big hit during the awe-inspiring solar eclipse. Porn platform xHamster told Mashable that visits to their site was down 12 percent across the country during the peak hours of the event, though in certain areas closest to the band of totality a far more sizable bite was taken out of traffic.
It's not entirely a surprise, since this was a once-in-a-lifetime event that you had to be outside to witness. And, well, it's pretty hard to watch and enjoy porn in the blinding daylight.
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The drop in site visits was highest in areas within and close by the band of totality. So, for instance, Nashville was down a whopping 43 percent, and Charleston’s traffic decreased by 36 percent. Similarly, Portland saw a decline of 35 percent.
Cities that saw only a partial eclipse did take xHamster's traffic down, but not as much. Miami, for example, was down 20 percent, while Los Angeles and New York were both down 15 percent. Chicago saw a decrease of just 9 percent.
All of these are very significant dips for the site, however. For comparison, Pornhub saw just a 4.5 percent drop in traffic during the blockbuster season premiere of Game of Thrones in July.
Alex Hawkins, xHamster's Vice President, says the company wasn't surprised by the nose dive, “It just goes to show that porn stars can never compete with real stars. Of course, you won’t burn your eyes looking at ours.”
Now that the eclipse is over, you can all go back to trying to go blind the old-fashioned way.
Cassie Murdoch is Mashable's Culture Editor.. Before coming here, Cassie was Senior Culture Writer at Vocativ. She previously wrote for Jezebel and The Hairpin. Cassie spends most of her time thinking about and consuming cheese in all its glorious forms.
