But Do Porn Sites Get More Traffic than TikTok, OpenAI, and Zoom?

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Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ According to its “How we measure the digital world” page, Similarweb utilizes a variety of digital data points, including publically available data and data provided by website and app owners, a contributor network, and data partners (https://www.similarweb.com/corp/ourdata). One-hundred and ninety countries are assessed. Many scholars have used Similarweb data in their research (e.g., Do-Thi & Do, 2022; Jain et al., 2022; Nasiopoulos et al., 2021; Vyas, 2019; Wasil et al., 2020). If Similarweb estimates are in error, it appears the direction of fault is toward under – not over – estimation (Jansen et al., 2022).

² Similarweb also provides free global ranking data for the prior two months. In February and March of 2023, the global rankings for Xvideos, Pornhub, and Xnxx were 8/8, 11/10, and 10/11, respectively.

³ Although recalling our utilization of the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) and research suggesting that women’s and men’s pornography use patterns would be less differentially pronounced in more gender-progressive countries (Baumeister & Mendoza, 2011; Tokunaga et al., 2019), we did wonder if the male-female divide would be lower in the GSS than for Pornhub globally as the U.S ranked 27/146 in the 2022 GGGI (scores closer to one reflect a lower gender gap).

⁴ As can be tallied from the figures, Similarweb data indicate that 52.13% of Pornhub’s audience is between 18 and 34. For Xvideos, Xnxx, and Xhamster, Similarweb data place the percentage of 18-34 year-old audience at 50.28%, 46.22%, and 43.46%, respectively.