Porn traffic took a major hit during the first matches of 'Overwatch' League
The opening week of Overwatch League attracted more than 10 million viewers, which had the adverse effect of causing a noticeable hit on porn traffic, YouPorn data shows.
YouPorn, one of the biggest porn sites on the internet, revealed that traffic fell as much as 9% below average during the inaugural matches of Blizzard's ambitious Overwatch esports league last week. The biggest traffic hit came during the first match between the San Francisco Shock and the Los Angeles Valiant.
It's important to note that this could just be a coincidence, but a 9% drop isn't insignificant. The following three days of Overwatch League matches saw similar traffic patterns, though, albeit with less significant drops (8% on day two, 5% on day three, 3% on day four).
Another fact that makes it seem like less of a coincidence is that YouPorn users have shown their interest in Overwatch by searching for Overwatch related content on YouPorn. With Overwatch League on the mind in January, Overwatch-related searches actually increased way beyond their average.
Day one and day two of Overwatch League seemed to cause people to search for Overwatch-related porn 26% and 31% more than usual on YouPorn, showing a correlation between the two audiences.
Overwatch isn't the first video game to have an effect on porn traffic. When the Nintendo Switch launched in March with the critically acclaimed Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, YouPorn suffered a 17% drop in traffic.
Hopefully YouPorn can recover from these losses soon.
