Marianne Wilson

How pop culture penetrated our porn habits in 2024

Tradwives, modesty and mindfulness: here are the biggest trends from the last 12 months, according to Pornhub

Today (December 10), Pornhub publishes its annual Year In Review, which delves into the site’s data on emerging trends, top search terms, favourite categories, and much more. The finished report offers a fascinating (and funny) insight into the porn viewing habits of people around the world – here are this year’s main takeaways.

VERY DEMURE, VERY MINDFUL

This summer, the phrase “very demure, very mindful” took over the internet after content creator Jools Lebron posted a number of videos detailing how to be “demure” and “mindful” on TikTok which subsequently went viral.

Pornhub found that this year searches for “demure” rose by 133 per cent, “mindful pleasure” was up 112 per cent, and “mindful JOI” (JOI is an acronym for ‘jerk off instructions’, FYI) was up 87 per cent.

Searches related to “modesty” – another one of Lebron’s favourite words – also increased by 77 per cent, while the term “modest milf” was up 45 per cent. 

THE RISE OF THE TRADWIVES

“Wife” porn has always been hot on Pornhub, but this year it looks like people have been really horny for wives – probably due to the growing ‘tradwife’ movement and shows like The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

Searches for “traditional wife” rose by 34 per cent, while “tradwife” was up 72 per cent. Similarly, searches for “mormon wife” were up 71 per cent, “mormon sex” 92 per cent, and “mormon threesome” was up 122 per cent.

COWORKER FANTASIES

This year many employees have been marched back to the office, and it seems as though the return to in-person working has catalysed a new wave of office crushes. Searches for “coworker” rose by 92 per cent, “workplace fantasy” by 57 per cent, and “fucking coworker” by 69 per cent.

ANIMATION

For four years running now, “hentai” has been the most popular porn category in the world. This year “anime” rose four spots to become the seventh most popular, while interest in other animated forms of porn also grew. “Animation” searches grew by 28 per cent, “realistic animated” 78 per cent, and “gay animated” 23 per cent.

GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES

Pornhub’s statisticians found Gen Z were 392 per cent more likely to view vertical videos than other generations (looks like TikTok really has rotted our brains). 18- to 24-year-olds were also 193 per cent more likely to view Hentai. Gen Z also watched Gaming 151 per cent more than other groups. 

Interestingly, young people are far more likely to use Pornhub for non-porn style porn than ‘traditional’ porn. For example, Music, SFW (safe for work), and Gaming are all in Gen Z’s top categories. “It seems they are looking to get more from their experience on Pornhub than watching purely sex videos,” the report reads. “It’s almost like Gen Z is watching Pornhub for the podcasts, like Boomers read Playboy for the articles.”

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