Something Funny Happened to Pornhub Traffic During the Super Bowl ...

Impact

The news: New statistics from Pornhub show just how depressing this year's Super Bowl got.

Downbeat Denver Broncos fans didn't just drown their sorrows in beer and buffalo dip (or legal weed) — they also turned to porn en masse as a way of coping with their crushing defeat at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks. While Pornhub has previously released data, this new batch is particularly timely.

Here's what happened to Pornhub's traffic during the game, when fans in both cities were busy cheering on large men tackle each other in a nonsexual fashion ...

... And here's what happened after the Super Bowl, when the Seahawks' 43-8 win sent Denver into a sobbing tailspin.

Pornhub calls this kind of smackdown worthy of the "BDSM category," which I'm not explaining to you.

Here's what that increase looks like visually.

Both cities started returning to their normal porn-watching habits around the super-depressing second half, when presumably lots of casual viewers (or those tired of watching a shutout) decided to turn off their TVs and start surfing the web. But Colorado started peaking a lot earlier than Washington. And while Washingtonians briefly began paying attention to the game again after the halftime show, Coloradans did not.

While the state of Washington was busy post-game partying, pretty much everyone else across the country was availing themselves of the opportunity to get a little something something as well.

Commented someone on Gawker, "Well, a bunch of superbowl parties turned real awkward real fast."

Finally, the rest of the world didn't care very much about the big game, except our good buddies in Canada, who saw a drop in the neighborhood of 15%.

Previous data analyses from Pornhub have found differing results, with Greece's financial crisis and Osama bin Laden's death both depressing views by 7%, while Obama's election in 2008 saw a 22.5% rise in porn-watching. And big TV events suppress carnal urges as well, with viewers presumably finding their hands a little too full to multitask.