Porn site Pornhub saw spike in traffic after Hawaii missile threat

Hawaii's false alarm missile threat caused an almost unbearable amount of tension for residents - so much so that it sent some of them searching for relief in a rather risque place: a porn site.

Porn website Pornhub has revealed it saw a huge spike in traffic in the minutes after it was revealed the incoming ballistic missile warning had been a false alarm - with views in Hawaii coming in at nearly 50 per cent more than usual, the Daily Mail reports.

Unsurprisingly, this leap in numbers followed a dramatic decline, which took place after residents received the first text alert at 8.07am on Saturday 13 January, warning them that a ballistic missile was heading their way.

Seeking relief: Pornhub revealed that traffic skyrocketed after residents of Hawaii were notified that the missile threat was a false alarm and pageviews were 50 per cent higher. Photo / Pornhub

At this point, pageviews plummeted as people sought shelter from what they thought a severe threat to their lives, with traffic reaching 77 per cent lower then usual during the 20 minutes after the warning went out.

At 8.23am exactly the website experienced its lowest numbers, with views beginning to climb up into normal range once again after 8.45am, when residents were told that the warning had in fact been a false alarm.

But far from just returning to normal, Pornhub's statisticians were fascinated to learn that the site's numbers then soared in quite the opposite direction, shooting up above average and ranging at a peak 48 per cent increase in its average Saturday morning numbers.

The all-time high came at 9.01am exactly, just 15 minutes after the second message was sent out - no doubt having given people time to return to their homes (and, apparently, their computers) after seeking shelter.

Pornhub's Hawaii trend analysis comes just after a few months after it was revealed people are - on the whole - watching far less porn that they did ten years ago.

Pornhub reveals it saw a 50% spike in traffic minutes after the Hawaii missile threat
Residents of Hawaii received a text message alert at 8:07am on Saturday, January 13, stating that a ballistic missile was headed towards the island.

Pornhub revealed a steep drop in traffic at 8:07am, immediately after the text was sent out

- By 8:23am, traffic was a massive -77% below what a typical Saturday got

- At 8:45am, residents were then notified that the alert was a false alarm

- The site reports that traffic went back to normal after the false alarm

- By 9:01am, just 16 minutes after the false alarm, traffic surged to +48% typical levels

In honor of its ten year anniversary in May, the pornography purveyor has released 10 years worth of information about who is watching porn, how they're watching, and what they're watching.

While some of the survey results were unsurprising - 'MILF' was one of the sites most enduring categories, for example - some of the statistics were less predictable, such as the fact that Kim Kardashian was the most popular porn star of 2008 (her infamous sex tape was released one year prior).

One of the most notable results from the survey, however, was the way that technology has impacted how society views pornography.

When Pornhub launched in 2007, a mere one per cent of viewers tuned in on a mobile device. By May 2017, that number has soared to 75 per cent.

The site also revealed that it saw a huge increase in the amount of content available - with more than 1.5 million hours worth of footage available to stream. That amounts to more than 173 years of content.

Despite such a massive increase in content, the average viewer actually spends less time watching porn today than they did ten years ago. In 2007, a visitor to the site spent an average of 13 minutes on the site, clicking through a total of 14 pages.

These days, the average viewer spends an average of four minutes less, and browses fewer total pages. In 2017, PornHub visitors spent nine minutes clicking through just nine pages.