Idle Hands: Pornhub Reports DC Traffic Spike During Government Shutdown

The world’s largest internet pornography website, Pornhub, says it knows exactly what furloughed government workers are doing with their newfound free time. At least some of them anyway. The web porn giant released analytics Thursday revealing a 6% rise in Washington D.C. traffic to their repository of online smut since the government shutdown 27 days ago.

Time on the hands of furloughed and sidelined federal workers seems to correlate perfectly with a 6% rise in Washington D.C. traffic to the pornography site that revolutionized the internet industry and nearly singlehandedly ended pay-for-view pornography on the web and via other delivery methods.

Pornhub’s statisticians noted not only an increase in visits to the site, but also a distinct shift in the hours during which people are watching porn,” stated Pornhub in an article on their website. “When compared to traffic levels prior to the shut-down, weekday visits across the United States were up 5.94 percent.”

Pornhub’s peak traffic period across the United States is typically between the hours of 10 p.m. to midnight. After the shutdown began back in December, late night traffic increased above average, while early morning traffic on the website between the hours of 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. had the smallest change.

In the District, the results with the traffic after midnight were up nearly 12 percent and early morning traffic down from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Female viewership in the District increased by 12.3 percent above average.