Pornhub Was Shocked by How Total Solar Eclipse Affected Their Viewers

The staff at Pornhub was shocked on Monday when their website’s traffic plummeted to low levels they rarely see. What was keeping people from watching Asa Akira and Sasha Grey? Why, the solar eclipse, of course.

In fact, new data released on Pornhub Insights confirms that wherever the solar eclipse was most intense, specifically in cities where it reached totality, interest in pornography plummeted into the negative. Inverse reached out to Pornhub on the day of the eclipse to inquire about the site’s data, and as it turns out, the company was surprised by its numbers. In fact, the entire nation was less interested in Pornhub’s offerings while the eclipse was happening, but in states like Wyoming, where the moon eclipsed the sun entirely, people were half as likely to search for porn as they are on a regular day.

There is a precedent set for porn searches dropping during exceptional events. During the Season 7 premiere of Game of Thrones, a very low number of people were on Pornhub. Even more intriguingly, people turn to pornography quickly, and in higher numbers, when major events like championship games don’t go their way. When the Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals this June, people in Cleveland began searching for porn in the game’s final few moments. Pornhub’s data shows that Warriors fans in the Bay Area took longer to return to a normal rate of porn consumption, whereas Cavs fans in Cleveland returned to masturbating with a vengeance.