How much is the porn industry worth in 2025?
It’s a multi-billion-dollar industry that has been around for a long time.
There has always been a lot of debate surrounding the topic of pornography among people, politicians, spiritual advisors/leaders, scientists, and even psychologists.
What do we really know about this large industry though?
In the following article, we will look at some facts about the consumption and creation of pornography in this article by addressing how much it’s worth and statistics about its consumption.
Key Porn Industry Statistics
- The global pornography industry is worth an estimated $100 billion.
- Over 36,000 people looked for help and support for porn addiction in 2021.
- 84.4% of males and 16% of females between 14 and 18 years old consume pornography.
- 46% of American men and 16% of American women regularly consume pornography
- Every minute of every day around one million people consume online porn content.
How Much is the Porn Industry Worth in 2025?
Globally, it’s thought to be worth $100 billion.
The United States alone accounts for about $13 billion of that $100 billion.
The Bedbible Research Center surveyed 14,710 people, which included interviews with CEOs, porn actors, producers, and psychologists to dig deeper into the industry to gather more data and insight into this industry.
According to this research, there has never been a time in this world where the profits and revenues from porn have been as high as they are today.
It’s believed that the global pandemic has had a major impact on the increase in pornography consumption.
This has resulted in a higher “supply in demand”. As a result, more porn is created and available now than ever in the past.
(BedBible, Blunt Therapy)
What is Pornography?
While we all have a good idea of what porn is, we still need to define it for purposes of this article and to better provide valid data to our readers.
The online encyclopedia Britannica site defines pornography as a “representation of sexual behavior in books, pictures, statues, films, and other media that is intended to cause sexual excitement.”
Furthermore, it describes the distinction between pornography and erotica, which reveals porn as illicit and condemned content, while erotica is more widely accepted.
However, it’s overall quite subjective and is reflective of societal standards.
The word, pornography, comes from the Greek term porni combined with graphein.
Porni means “prostitute” in Greek and graphein means “to write”.
Based on this, the definition of pornography was related to any kind of artwork that illustrated prostitutes and prostitution.
While it’s highly likely that pornography has been around well before ancient Rome and Greece, we have seen a lot of imagery and statues from those ancient civilizations depicting various types of sexual behaviors.
(Britannica)
How Do Porn Websites Make Money?
The following information may shock you since not all revenues and profits come solely from porn films. Let’s look into this deeper.
Around 70% of all pornography site revenue comes from advertising.
This is a relative concept since most revenues on websites do come from advertisements.
Ad space online is as big as advertising itself over the years. Google, Facebook, and other sites make their highest revenues from ads.
So, we aren’t surprised to learn that porn sites get most of their profits from ads placed on their sites.
Subscription-based content is the next way porn sites make money.
Subscriptions make up 20% of the revenues generated on porn websites. This includes premium content, live webcam content, and other subscription-based offerings.
Finally, the last 10% of revenues comes from online porn-related gaming.
(BedBible)
How Did COVID-19 Impact the Pornography Industry?
We all have a pretty good grasp of the fact that porn consumption grew during the global pandemic, but how did it impact society and the world?
Research and studies show that the COVID-19 global pandemic caused massive increases in stress, mental health, and put an overall psychosocial burden on people across the globe.
These studies show that the lockdowns and other factors of the global pandemic increased the use of pornography due to these stressors.
We also see a vast difference between findings and thoughts on the subject. Let’s look at some of the findings from various sources.
NIH: According to the NIH, pornography surged in the third “wave” of the COVID-19 pandemic based on a study of students in Bangladesh.
Psychology Today: Michael Castleman M.A. – According to Dr. Castleman’s research, the idea behind the massive growth in pornography consumption wasn’t as massive as the world thinks.
He said we all have good reason to believe that online pornograpy consumption took a huge upturn during the pandemic, but we see that between February and May 2020, there was only a 9% increase before the industry interest fell back to pre-pandemic levels.
His study shows that the lack of privacy in families made it more difficult for people to engage with online porn sites, etc.
Research Gate: Frontier in Psychiatry March 2021 – Authored by Hashir Ali Awan, Alifiya Aamir, and Mufaddal Njamuddin Diwan from the Dow University of Health Sciences and Irfan Ullah from Kabir Medical College.
This data revealed that the increase in porn consumption came from isolation due to the lockdowns that resulted in a massive boost in internet usage overall.
They believe that online pornography grew directly because of these factors, according to the evidence.
Study Finds: According to this data, the number of people in the United Kingdom seeking professional help for pornography addiction tripled during the global pandemic.
Over 36,000 people looked for help and support for porn addiction in 2021, according to this study.
This data is based on just one treatment center, UK Addiction Treatment Group (UKAT), which is the country’s largest rehab.
Also, this represents a rise of almost 250% over 2020 where 10,500 people sought professional help for porn addiction.
As usual, we see there is still much debate on the topic by and large, which isn’t solely due to location or other demographics.
(NIH, Psychology Today, Research Gate, Study Finds)
Who Consumes Porn?
In a survey conducted in the United States among the nation’s teenagers, 84.4% of males between 14 and 18 years old consume pornography.
Among the nation’s females that figure is 57% for the same age group. It seems excessive for what’s considered adult material.
Overall, 46% of American men and 16% of American women regularly consume pornography.
Every minute of every day around one million people consume online porn content.
(Fight the New Drug, Maze of Love)
What’s the Impact of Porn?
The answer to this question is subjective and will differ depending upon who you ask.
An obsession with porn can become an addiction that impacts the life of the porn addict and the people around them.
Furthermore, it can put the person in very unhealthy relationships and situations physically and mentally. It’s like any other addiction.
It puts the person and the people around them at risk in various ways.
Dr. Valerie Voon from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Psychiatry did an experiment to see how brain activity is affected when viewing erotic imagery.
Did brain activity show healthy controls or not?
According to her experiment using MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) to take a deep dive into the brain’s anatomy, she discovered that higher levels of activity occurred in three unique areas of the brain in participants who exhibited compulsive sexual behaviors.
The overall conclusion is that the concern lies within the noticeable issues of how it harms the mind. You can read more in the BBC Science Focus article.
(BBC Science Focus, Blunt Therapy)
Conclusion
Excessive and obsessive pornography consumption isn’t as unusual as people might think.
When it becomes an addiction, it negatively impacts everyone involved.
Studies have shown that porn did experience a rise during the global pandemic.
We hope you have derived something of value after reading this article, now you know how much the porn industry is worth and some facts about it.