Pornhub Reports 'Hentai' Is Top Worldwide Search Term

Pornhub Reports 'Hentai' Is Top Worldwide Search Term

MONTREAL — Following a two-year hiatus, Pornhub has released its annual “Year in Review” infographics report, revealing that the top worldwide search term on the platform is “hentai.”

The report was released through the company’s data analysis marketing division Pornhub Insights.

It is the platform's eighth “Year in Review” report and covers “2021’s hottest trends, terms, searches and a recap of everything that happened during the year,” and including “commentary to touch on the main trends and breakdown the details to see how the year that was 2021 affected the porn viewership of people around the world.”

Highlights from the report include:

  • Trends that have found unique popularity among Pornhub browsers this year are words linked to romance (“romance,” “romantic,” “passionate,” “bromance”), group sex (“threesome,” “group,” “FFM,” “MMF,” “orgy”), fitness (“yoga,” “running,” “exercise,” “gym”), swapping (“swap,” “swapping,” “swinger,” “swinging,” “cuckold,” “cheating”), challenge (“buss it,” “jerk off challenge,” “try not to cum”), transgender (“trans"), goth, roommate (“lesbian roommate,” “gay roommate,” “fucking roommate”) and "How to…" (“…squirt,” “…eat pussy,” “…suck dick,” “…put on a condom”).
  • Besides "hentai," the Top 10 most-searched terms of 2021 worldwide were “Japanese,” “lesbian,” “MILF,” “Pinay,” “Asian,” “stepmom,” “anal,” “ebony” and “big ass.”
  • The Top 10 most-searched porn stars in 2021 were Lana Rhoades, Abella Danger, Eva Elfie, Riley Reid, Mia Malkova, Angela White, Mia Khalifa, Jordi El Nino Polla, Lena Paul and reigning XBIZ  "Female Performer of the Year" Emily Willis.
  • The Top 10 countries by traffic were the United States, U.K., Japan, France, Italy, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Philippines, Brazil and Spain.
  • The Top 10 most viewed categories were Japanese, lesbian, ebony, hentai, MILF, anal, mature, amateur, "popular with women" and threesome.
  • The Top 10 gay search terms were “twink,” “femboy,” “hentai,” “straight,” “black,” “Japanese,” “Pinoy,” “Asian,” “yaoi” and “anime.”
  • The average age of Pornhub visitors was 37.
  • The percentage of Pornhub visitors accessing the site via smartphones was 83%.

Why 'Hentai'?

As for the top worldwide term, the Pornhub Insights report explained that in Japanese culture, "'hentai' can refer to any sort of sexual fetish. But around the world it most often describes the pornographic form of anime, a style of Japanese film and television animation. Hundreds of thousands of hentai videos can be found on Pornhub, including professional productions, homemade animations made by fans and 3D generated scenes.”

Dr. Laurie Betito, clinical psychologist, sex therapist and director of the Pornhub Sexual Wellness Center, pointed out that “cartoons are more fantastical than regular porn. They may offer more visual stimulation in terms of movements, angles, colors and facial expressions. Because it’s not real, it can go further, with less constraints that reality offers. Hentai porn also tends to have more of a storyline and people seem to be more and more drawn to context.”

To read the full 2021 “Year in the Review” results, visit Pornhub.com.

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