Stiff competition: Pornhub traffic plummeted during Trump-Biden debate, particularly in swing states

It appears the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden may have taken precedence over watching porn for a big chunk of Americans, as Pornhub revealed its website took a hit to its traffic during the face-off.

The US’s most popular adult website revealed that visits were down 18.5 percent as Biden and Trump traded barbs on stage in Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday. “That represents a significant change in visits during one of Pornhub’s peak daily traffic periods,” the website said.

Even more interestingly, Pornhub revealed that the biggest declines in traffic were seen in critical swing states – those that could reasonably be won by either the Democratic or Republican presidential candidate by a swing in votes. Traffic to the site from Michigan and Pennsylvania dropped by more than 20 percent, while that from Maine and Wisconsin fell by 20 and 19 percent respectively.

It appears perusers of porn were more interested in the 2020 debate than they were in 2016’s, when traffic dropped by only 16 percent during the first head-to-head between Trump and Hillary Clinton.

It’s unclear if the exchange of ideas – and insults – between Trump and Biden was enough to keep viewers hooked the whole way through, as Pornhub’s stats covered only the first hour of the debate. Porn-viewing did jump again after the debate, however, with traffic to the site climbing 5.2 percent above normal levels.

The electoral vote-rich Florida, Trump’s proclaimed home state – also a battleground state and one of the most desirable ‘wins’ in every election – was also paying close attention, with 18.6 percent of its Pornhub audience disappearing during the debate.

Meanwhile, Biden’s own state, the Democrat-leaning Delaware, appeared almost at the bottom of the list, having lost only 13 percent of its porn viewers to presidential politics.

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