As temperatures dropped to record lows across the Midwest, Pornhub’s statisticians found record highs … in traffic coming to the site. It seems as more people were forced to spend time indoors, they preferred to heat things up by visiting their favorite porn site. Newsweek asked us to take a closer look.
Record highs happened in Minnesota where traffic to Pornhub increased by +22% above average on January 30th to 31st. Wisconsin traffic was up +12% and +9% in both Indiana and Illinois.
The one exception was the state of Michigan, where traffic dropped by -2% below average. This may be due to the shortage of natural gas which prompted Michigan’s governor to ask residents to turn down their thermostats to just 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18 Celsius). Perhaps the temperatures inside were too low for people to risk exposing their extremities unnecessarily.
The traffic changes on January 30th and 31st were much more pronounced when we compare the hourly averages. Much like the changes we found during the Government Shutdown, more time at home caused an increase in traffic after midnight, and also in the afternoon when people are typically preoccupied with work. Traffic at 2am was up +29% in the affected states, as well as a +36% increase at 1pm.
These results were nearly identical to our findings during Winter Storm Stella in 2017.