Pornography is more accessible online than it’s ever been. The following will address how many people watch porn in 2024 and other relevant porn statistics.
Even with strong filters in search results, people can find and watch pornographic content whenever and wherever they choose.
Anything you can imagine that involves sex or pornography can be found and viewed online by about anyone.
One of the reasons for the widespread indulgence in porn is that people want to delve into their own sexual fantasies.
Let’s learn the truth about porn and who watches it.
Key Statistics
- 2.4 million people visit the top three porn sites per minute.
- Over 40 million Americans watch porn online.
- An estimated 4% of all websites are considered porn sites.
- Desktop and mobile searches are at between 13% and 20% of all web searches.
- 91.5% of men say they viewed porn in a one-month period.
- 60.2% of women reported viewing pornography in a one-month period.
- 60% of all porn sites are hosted in the United States.
- California accounts for 66% of all pornographic sites in the United States.
How Many People Watch Porn in 2024?
Roughly 2.4 million people visit the top three pornographic websites each minute.
Over 40 million Americans report watching porn online.
It’s estimated that 4% of all websites are pornographic websites.
Data from 2019 shows that in about one minute, Pornhub will have had over 200,000 website visits.
The top three pornographic websites combined get 5.81 billion visits per month.
This represents nearly 135,000 new porn site visits per minute just on those top porn websites.
In the United States, pornography websites get more traffic than websites like Instagram, TikTok, Zoom, Pinterest, Twitter, and Netflix combined.
So, we know that millions, probably more like billions of people watch porn.
There is no exact number as we only have estimates.
(Fight the New Drug)
Who’s Watching Porn?
According to statistics, 91.5% of men surveyed said they watched porn compared to the 60.2% of women who responded in kind.
Out of all web searches recorded, 13% to 20% are searches about pornography.
Remember, people with VPNs and incognito browsers can’t be included.
There is no way to know how many of them visit, search, or watch porn.
The United States has the most pornographic websites with a market share of 60% of all websites.
Likewise, California has 66% of the porn website share in the United States.
According to one survey of individuals between 14- and 18-year-olds, 84.4% of males responded that they had watched pornography. Men are most likely to get addicted to porn.
Among the female demographic in this age group, 57.1% said that they had watched pornography.
(Psychology Today, Statista, Truth About Porn, Truth About Porn 2)
Why Do People Watch Porn?
Some reasons people choose to watch porn include:
- Sexual arousal and pleasure
- Educational and curiosity viewing to learn about sex
- To cope with negative emotions
- To avoid boredom
- It’s addictive like a drug
The reasons for watching porn vary among those who admit to viewing porn.
Whether it seems like a harmless habit or not, it does come with some devastating effects on personal relationships.
(Fight the New Drug 2)
What Are the Effects of Watching Porn?
While watching pornographic content can seem like a benign way to pass the time, it can also become an addiction and create issues in your relationships and affect your behavior.
Here are a few ways that pornography can negatively impact your life.
- Relationships: Watching porn can negatively affect your relationships, according to studies. Research shows a consistency in breakups and divorces directly correlated to porn consumption.
- Habitual: Pornography is known to be addictive, or at least habit-forming enough to make it challenging to quit. Classifications of porn consumption range from an unhealthy habit, a compulsion, or an addiction.
- Abuse & Violence: Pornographic content sometimes glorifies violence, which can start to change one’s behaviors and attitudes. In fact, those who consume porn are more apt to sexually objectify and exhibit dehumanizing behavior with others which can result in rape, sexual assault, etc. Also, porn normalizes abuse.
- Toxicity and Racism: Research shows that you will find several titles that use racial content and offensive wording in porn searches and on porn sites. At the end of the day, porn sexualizes everyone, but it also combines that with a mix of classism, racism, and sexism.
- Sexual Function: Consuming pornography can make sex feel less satisfying, which results in being less desirous of sex. The sexual dysfunction issue can happen to both men and women.
- Brain Changes: Neuroplastic, a term used to describe the idea that brain cells are constantly changing, can occur when consuming porn. Pornography can cause various forms of brain-changing issues.
- Mental Health: Peer-reviews studies show a correlation between the consumption of porn and depression, loneliness, anxiety, poor self-esteem, less satisfaction with life, etc.
Furthermore, pornography companies are profiting from nonconsensual sexual content since they can’t prove if their content is actually legal, ethical, or fully consensual. There are serious issues involving child sexual abuse and nonconsensual content.
Because of the very content, pornography also exacerbates sex trafficking, which happens a lot more often than you might think.
(Fight the New Drug 3)
What’s the Pornography Industry Worth?
In terms of the world, pornography is a $97 billion (USD) industry, of which $10 billion to $12 billion is generated from the United States.
(NBC News)
Conclusion
Now you know about how many people are watching porn these days and more about the porn industry in general.
While some may claim or feel it’s a victimless or harmless pastime, it’s not.
As you read this article, you have seen the studies and research that show how it can negatively impact lives.
It is also known to worsen mental health, relationships, sexual dysfunction, sexual violence and abuse, sex trafficking, racism, and other problems in our society.
In some places across the United States, you will see this happening daily, yet it’s still hard to digest.
We hope you have learned something new today about how many people watch porn and how it affects society.