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The coronavirus pandemic has quickly had an impact on every aspect of our lives, including our sex lives. And one area where this has become very evident is in the world of porn. The COVID-19 pandemic is not only affecting the amount and type of porn that is being produced, but the amount of porn that people are consuming and what type of porn they are searching for on major sites.

Porn consumption rates are rising in general. As reported by Pornhub, traffic rapidly increased during March 2020 when the pandemic began to spread, and lockdowns were instituted within major countries and cities around the world. Porn searches were up, mostly because a lot of people were at home with more time than usual on their hands. In addition, more and more people were using sex as a coping mechanism to deal with the anxiety regarding the disease. Some research has found that when faced with the prospect of our own mortality, this can encourage sexual desire and behaviours as a coping mechanism.

However, people aren’t just watching more porn in general right now – searches for coronavirus-themed porn is also on the rise. Coronavirus-themed porn involves people having sex wearing masks, surgical gloves and even hazmat suits – reflecting the need for sexual novelty and the ability of humans to fetishize pretty much anything. So, how has porn changed and evolved as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Premium Adult Fan Sites

With social distancing making it difficult for performers to create the content that they would normally make pre-pandemic, the biggest trend of the pandemic has been the huge growth in premium adult fan sites, such as OnlyFans. The site reportedly gained over three million new followers during March 2020 and claimed to receive 200,000 new users per day during May. Many of the viewers were seeking more authenticity and intimacy with the porn that they consumed, provided by direct communications with the performers and offering the option for self-shot and raw content.

Safe Sex

The coronavirus pandemic has had a huge impact on traditional porn production studios, with all on-set productions halted in line with wider social measures to slow the spread of the pandemic in the early days. Some small porn production studios where the members share the same home continued producing content in a COVID-safe manner. But for the most part, porn shifted to an industry that was dominated by sole performers and couples using platforms like Babestation Cams; they’re known for cam girls and have soared in popularity over the pandemic. Whether you’re looking for some adult sexstation chat or want to watch your favourite cam girls, Babestation Cams has helped many people continue enjoying a fulfilling sex life throughout the pandemic.

The Cost of Halting Productions

Despite the end in sight, many porn content producers have decided to stay offline indefinitely due to the costs and complexity of implementing COVID-19 safety and testing measures. However, porn studios are used to closing down, sometimes for weeks at a time due to health inspections. As a result, they will usually stockpile scenes that they can continue uploading even during a shutdown, with many big studios having enough content ready to last them throughout the year. Performers will often also turn to side hustles or use adult fan sites during these shutdowns. However, they are only typically out of work for a couple of weeks at a time, and very infrequently, which has made the COVID-19 pandemic very different to what porn studios and performers are used to.

Has Porn Shifted for Good?

Many experts say that the decline of porn studios and the rise in premium fan sites is an old trend that has been led for a long time by the growing consumer demand for more authentic and intimate content over content that is heavily produced in a studio. They believe that the pandemic has only brought this trend forward by a few years, and that it was inevitably going to happen at some point. Today, many porn viewers may not even realise the fall of some of the main studios since they will often have niche followings or operate behind the scenes making content for bigger brands. In addition, the gap between the studios and independent content creators is getting smaller and smaller as better and more affordable recording and editing equipment becomes available.

Shifting Porn Interests

In the difficult times of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant shift in what viewers are interested in and searching for. Searches for usually popular content like incest roleplay porn and MILF have declined dramatically, likely as a result of people spending more time at home with their families which has made these genres less appealing than normal. Other growing interests have been driven by the realities of life during the pandemic, including searches for public sex scenes that have been up by almost 90% since the spring of 2020, and searches for kissing, which is not usually a typical porn search, up along with searches for medical and pandemic themed porn. In general, people will often search for porn that delivers them the things that they crave but are unable to currently access, which has been seen throughout the change in search trends during the pandemic.

Will Affected Genres Bounce Back?

Experts suggest that the genres that have suffered lower viewership numbers since the beginning of the pandemic are likely to bounce back once our lives begin to return to normal and the coronavirus is a thing of the past. A few key search terms are already beginning to climb once again now that we are coming out of lockdowns and there is a vaccine in place. However, certain precautions that have been put in place by studios and independent actors mean that types of porn that involve a lot of bodily fluids or a lot of people in close proximity to one another are likely to continue to be on hold for the foreseeable future.

Have your porn viewing habits changed during the COVID-19 pandemic?