Pornhub traffic flopped like Neymar during the World Cup
The World Cup is over -- congratulations, France -- but don't despair and roll around on the ground like Neymar after a phantom foul. Instead, revel in some of the strange and wonderful stats we can pore over thanks to Pornhub.
While most of the world spent part of their Sunday watching the tilt between France and Croatia, Pornhub was watching their website traffic drop.
The site has now released data surrounding the World Cup and, surprise, traffic dropped the most in the finalist countries with a pretty sizable dip across the rest of the soccer-crazed world. It's notable that the drop was a bit less in Germany and Brazil, two world soccer powers who probably expected their teams to be playing in the final.
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But what happened after the match in Croatia and France is just as interesting. While Croatia seemed more focused on soccer than porn in the lead-up to the match, they seemed to hit the site quicker after the match than their French counterparts. That makes sense, given that the French were out celebrating and Croatian fans needed to find solace somewhere.
Breaking it down by country also shows some fun tidbits. For instance, French fans were pretty consistent in when they turned away from Pornhub -- except for following their thrilling semi-final victory over Belgium when they saw the biggest spike. If you're going to hold off on the street celebrations until the final, I guess you've still got to find an outlet for that semi-final jubilation.
As for Croatia, again, you can see they were super serious about pre-match preparation, so much so that they abandoned Pornhub well before the final. You can also see pretty clearly how the country handled the pressure of three-straight extra time matches in the knock-out round: glued to the television for extra soccer and then glued to their laptops for a little stress relief.
Finally, how did Pornhub's top countries in terms of traffic react? Again, France topped the chart with the most fans turning off the adult entertainment site which, well, duh.
There were a few fun tidbits, though. For instance, India and Japan apparently didn't care enough about the final to really affect their usual traffic patterns for that time on a Sunday (which, admittedly, was in the middle of the night in Japan). And the United States did see a drop, but not a significant one which raises the question: If soccer can't cut deep into our porn viewing, will it ever break through in America?
And now we wait for the next World Cup, being held in Qatar in 2022, a country where summer temps are so hot that the tournament will be played in November and December. Rest assured, though, Pornhub will have plenty of holiday-themed videos to entice viewers following the matches.
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Marcus Gilmer is Mashable's Assistant Real-Times News Editor on the West Coast, reporting on breaking news from his location in San Francisco. An Alabama native, Marcus earned his BA from Birmingham-Southern College and his MFA in Communications from the University of New Orleans. Marcus has previously worked for Chicagoist, The A.V. Club, the Chicago Sun-Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.
