MONTREAL — Pornhub said their user traffic fell 10 percent on Nov. 10 when Bethesda's post-apocalyptic game "Fallout 4" released.
"Fallout 4" had a massive launch with 12 million copies shipped by Nov. 13, and according to Pornhub's Google Analytics "affinity" data, many of its 60 million daily visitors are gamers.
Affinity data sheds light on audience demographics and interests, so that companies can create more targeted advertisements based on the likelihood of conversion.
Google, for instance, identifies users as 'technophiles,' 'news junkies,' 'gamers' and more. After "Fallout 4" went live at 12 a.m. (EST), Pornhub tracked the activity of users classified as gamers.
They noticed a 5 percent dip from 3 a.m. to 4, which fell further to 10 percent from 7 a.m. to noon. It then returned to normal in the afternoon, before falling again in the evening as people arrived home from work. After midnight, however, Pornhub noticed that their traffic jumped 15 percent above daily averages.
Pornhub also dissected the traffic into more detailed gamer subcategories, like 'action game fans' and 'adventure & strategy game fans,' whose traffic levels plunged to the 13-15 percent mark from 7 a.m. to noon.
"We can’t say we’re too surprised with what happened to our traffic during peak gaming hours," Pornhub Vice President Corey Price told GamesBeat. "Based on the data, it looks like a huge surge of people decided to indulge in some wasteland wandering by taking the day off of work and school to play, while the rest of the world had to wade through what we assume were the longest hours of work ever in anticipation of some alone time with their consoles.
"As huge fans of the game, we can’t say we blame anyone for swapping Pornhub time for some Pip-Boy surfing instead," added Price. "We would have done the same."
