Why Virtual Sex Is Surging Amid Coronavirus

Porn is proving to be one of the only businesses thriving during the global health crisis


If you spend a lot of time indoors, enriching activities can be limited—especially now that we live in a world of severely curtailed physical and social interaction. If you live alone, warm human touch, such as shared sexual satisfaction or even a hug, becomes nothing more than a daydream. It’s no wonder folks are turning to the next best thing for skin-to-skin interaction: porn.


According to recent statistics released by Pornhub, not only are more people visiting the adult-entertainment site since nationwide lockdowns have taken effect; coronavirus-related porn searches have surged as well. On March 17, “worldwide traffic to Pornhub was up 11.6 percent,” reads an official insights report. “In the past 30 days, our statisticians recorded more than 9.1 million searches containing either ‘corona’ or ‘covid.’ Searches peaked on March 5 at 1.5 million.”

Simply put, we have more time at our disposal and fewer available distractions. In Italy, the country hit hardest by the pandemic, traffic to Pornhub has steadily increased. It reached a 57 percent spike on March 12, when the site announced it would offer free premium service to the entire country. Unsurprisingly, traffic has continued to rise since then.


"When someone is in a more positive headspace, they are more open to engaging in communal activities with friends and family."


Other European countries followed: On March 16, Pornhub extended the same offer in France and Spain. “Traffic from France was up 38.2 percent on March 17 and 61.3 percent in Spain as millions of people signed up for their free Pornhub premium service,” reads the insights report. On Monday, the company announced free premium membership globally through April 23.

As for the United States, the platform’s largest market, March 17 was marked by a 6.4 percent increase in traffic compared with that of an average day. Even more interesting, data confirmed another change in habits: Folks are logging in at different times throughout the day compared with pre-COVID-19 standards.

“Traffic was a massive 40.3 percent above average at three a.m., before dropping 11.9 percent at seven a.m. That was followed by a 26.8 percent increase mid-afternoon. Evening traffic was 11 percent below average during the usual peak traffic hour of 11 p.m.,” reads the report.

But this isn’t just about having more time on our hands, according to New York-based sex ther****t Rachel Hoffman. In times of distress, we seek distractions. And what’s better to keep our minds off tragedy and seclusion than sex?

“People look for distractions, and they differ depending on the situation,” says Hoffman. “When someone is in a more positive headspace, they are more open to engaging in communal activities with friends and family.” When someone is in a more negative headspace, like the countless people weathering the pandemic, isolating activities such as reading, listening to music, and watching porn take over.

“When you engage in another stimulus, it helps distract you from allowing anxious thoughts to creep in and take over,” she says.

The fact that porn viewing is usually associated with masturbation connects the cultural conversation to a biological one. “Masturbation can cause your body to release dopamine, which is related to your brain’s reward system. It can also release endorphins, which are a natural pain reliever, and oxytocin, which is typically called the ‘love hormone,’” explains Hoffman. “That’s why masturbation can be used as a stress reliever and can also be shown to reduce anxiety.”

It turns out that watching porn and self-pleasuring may mitigate the depressing thoughts that can naturally take over in quarantine conditions. That argument is historically rooted: In times of war, soldiers unable to spend time with their partners have sought alternate means of sexual stimulation.


"[Porn] is used to blend what is currently occurring with an image of something far outside our reach."


“Sometimes they received erotic letters or would look at images,” says Hoffman. “Some pictures were of women dressed in army uniforms.”

This takes us to the second finding highlighted by Pornhub’s recent stats: To cope with the pandemic, browsers have apparently found it the****utic to indulge in virus-related porn.

“Searches containing ‘coronavirus’ and ‘corona virus’ first appeared on January 25 and continued to grow,” reads the report. Although people in Slovakia are 119 percent more likely than those in other countries to search for coronavirus on the site, similar searches have spiked throughout the world. Within the United States, “visitors from Washington, D.C.…are more likely to search [for it].… Folks from North Dakota are the least likely to search by –43 percent when compared to the rest of the country.” The United States as a whole is only 10 percent more likely to search for the topic compared with the rest of the world.

Overall, the numbers don’t surprise Hoffman. “Porn is an escape into an alternate reality,” she says. “[Porn] is used to blend what is currently occurring with an image of something far outside our reach.” Example: a sexual encounter with someone who has tested positive.

In a way, the relationship between the coronavirus and porn illuminates the breadth of human emotion and experience. While some ignore sociopolitical issues in an effort to calm their nerves, others believe that confronting those issues—whether through dialogue or sex—is the only way to survive.