Pornhub views spike in DC as lawmakers keep busy during shutdown

Pornhub has released stats showing a rise in logins from Washington DC, suggesting furloughed federal employees may be choosing to spend their unpaid forced vacations engaged in a little self-love.

While Pornhub's traffic was up for the US in general, Washington DC saw an even larger increase than the whole-country average, with 6.32 percent more visitors than the site logged in the week preceding the shutdown. Women, it seemed, were finding the shutdown especially erotic, as female traffic was up a full 12.3 percent.

Late-night traffic saw the biggest increase, with 12 percent more visitors from the capital – consistent, Pornhub reported, with other events where users stay up late and sleep in, secure in the knowledge they don't have to go to work. The shutdown entered its 27th day on Thursday and doesn't show any signs of ending, leaving 800,000 government workers with idle hands.

DC users – perhaps missing the sunshine on their skin as the January chill keeps them indoors – especially loved "outdoor" clips, which saw a 71-percent rise in category views. "Threesome" and "old/young" were the next two most popular genres among those longing for the bipartisan reconciliation that would bring back their paychecks. "Cuckold" and "trans" were also in the top 10.

Pornhub has tied its traffic to political events before, reporting a drop in viewership during former FBI Director James Comey's testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2017.