Every now and then, Internet pornography website PornHub releases data on its users. It's often grim, and frequently hilarious, but ocassionally it shows a rather interesting insight into human behavior, even if in retrospect we'd really rather not know it at all.
Now PornHub has released new data on the effect the recent Royal wedding in the UK had on people's pornography habits around the world. It reveals some rather odd ways people across the globe honored the couple, through the medium of cranking one out.
First, here's the respectful bits. Out of a sense of duty to the Royal family, the world eased off on jacking it for most of the duration of the wedding.
Worldwide, people stopped paying a one-handed salute to Prince Albert long enough to watch Prince Harry marry Meghan Markle. Traffic dipped 10 percent globally, slightly less than the whopping 21 percent it went down in the UK, compared to a normal Saturday.
England and Wales were the most likely to stop "doffing their hat to her majesty" during the ceremony. At 12pm noon, when the vows took place, England was watching 21 percent less porn than normal. Meanwhile in Scotland, where there is less support for the Royal family according to ICM data, there was only a 14 percent downturn in traffic during the ceremony.
Across the Commonwealth, there was a respectful tribute as they too stopped running the Union Jack up the flagpole long enough to watch the Royal wedding. In Australia, viewing figures went down 17 percent, in New Zealand 18 percent, and Canada 16 percent. Weirdly though, France stopped climbing the Tower of London to visit the crown jewels the most of everyone worldwide, as viewing figures slumped a whopping 23 percent.
Which is all pretty, well, touching.
However, here's where it gets a bit grim. The data from Pornhub also looked at search terms surrounding the Royal wedding. In the days up to the wedding, searches containing the word "royal" rose a spectacular 1,865 percent, and "prince and princess" also saw a spike as people... got in the mood for the big event?
Grimmest of all though, searches for Meghan Markle skyrocketed, going up 2,812 percent.
Search interest for celebrities who attended the wedding also shot through the roof of Windsor Castle, with searches for Victoria Beckham, David Beckham, and various co-stars of Meghan Markle's former TV show Suits all seeing massive increases.
Check out the rest of the data for yourself on the PornHub Insights website. It's safe for work, but you might want to look when you're at home, just in case you get flagged to the IT department.
Curious what other fascinating data Pornhub holds? We got you covered.
Like big data about events everyone is watching? Check out this:
