New data has revealed that traffic to the adult video sharing website Pornhub dipped during the 2018 World Cup Final that saw France defeat Croatia 4 -2. The new insights come after previous data showed that, perhaps not surprisingly, traffic to the website dropped considerably when fans from particular countries playing in the tournament tuned in to watch their teams compete.
As expected, traffic declines were especially pronounced in France and Croatia. Just before the final match’s kickoff, traffic in Croatia dropped by 46 per cent while France’s was down 24 per cent. Notably, Croatia’s traffic remained considerably lower throughout the match, declining as much as 68 per cent in the first hour, though steadily recovering in the second hour of the match.
Traffic in France, meanwhile, continued to drop throughout the entire match, likely indicating that fans in France remained much more confident in securing victory as the match wore on and Croatia’s fortunes increasingly appeared to wane. Upon the conclusion of the final match, traffic recovered quickly in Croatia, ultimately rising to about seven per cent above average. Traffic in France, however, remained low hours after the final match of the World Cup.
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.
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.
Worldwide traffic also dipped approximately 12 per cent during the match before recovering and peaking at about four per cent above average shortly after its conclusion. Even before the final match, considerable drops were observed in the critical Knockout Stage matches. In the Croatia v England semifinal match, traffic in Croatia plummeted as much as 70 per cent as the crucial match went into extra time.
The France v Belgium semifinal match, likewise, also produced a sizeable traffic decline of about 52 per cent in France. Broken down by country, Pornhub’s traffic during the World Cup Final match saw considerable drops in many nations. Croatia and France, as expected, saw the largest declines at 66 per cent and 55 per cent respectively.
Venezuela also saw a major drop in traffic, mirroring France’s 55 per cent decline. Bulgaria and Slovenia both saw the next largest declines at 45 per cent and 40 per cent respectively. Traffic in Switzerland and Hong Kong also dipped by 33 per cent while traffic in Vietnam was also 32 per cent lower. Traffic from the United States, which did not compete in the 2018 World Cup, only dipped by approximately five per cent.
Many European and South American nations also clocked in considerable traffic drops, with traffic from the United Kingdom dipping 12 per cent while Spain, Italy and Germany declined by 26, 25 and 21 per cent respectively. Host nation Russia also declined by a considerable 23 per cent. In South America, traffic fell by 21 per cent in Brazil and 24 per cent in neighboring Argentina.
Countries with minor declines include India and Japan at one per cent each, the Philippines and New Zealand at four per cent and Australia at six per cent.