Trigger warning: This article contains sexually explicit titles, categories, and descriptions. Read discretion is advised.
Every year, Pornhub releases its Year in Review—a flashy catalogue of the world’s sexual habits, preferences, and patterns. But behind the lighthearted graphics and celebratory tone is something more serious: a data-driven look at how porn consumption is shaping sexuality, relationships, identity, and even racial perceptions worldwide.
As with our analysis of previous annual reports, this isn’t about shaming individuals. It’s about asking better questions: What does this say about us? What does it reinforce? What does it normalize? And how does it impact real relationships and real people?
The 2025 report is one of the most revealing yet, in many ways.
Important to Note: In response to age verification laws passed in 23 states, Pornhub decided it would rather not comply with changing its permissions to protect children, and now it is blocked in almost half of the country, and France.
While we don’t have access to Pornhub’s internal metrics, it’s safe to assume that many users in states where Pornhub is blocked still accessed the site using VPNs. That means their traffic would appear as if it came from another state, which likely skews the state-by-state data Pornhub publishes.
Another thing to keep in mind: back in 2020, after major media investigations—most notably by The New York Times—exposed how Pornhub had been hosting and profiting from videos involving exploitation and abuse (including content featuring minors), the platform was forced to delete millions of videos. They also banned terms like “teen,” “child,” “underage,” and “young girl,” which had previously been among their most popular searches. Of course, this doesn’t stop users from looking for similar content; many simply switch to coded or alternative search terms.
All this is important context because we have no way of verifying Pornhub’s self-reported data—nor do we know what information they choose to highlight, omit, or redefine. With those caveats in mind, let’s dive into Pornhub’s 2025 report.
2025 Most Searched for Terms
One of the most telling pieces of PornHubs 2025 report is its the Most Searched for Terms section. Every year, changes to some degree can be a reflection of consumers’ interests.
The Surge in LGBTQ+ Searches: Exploration or Exploitation?
In their report. Pornhub highlights “diverse desires” as the #1 defining trend of the year. And yes, LGBTQ+ searches rose dramatically:
- “Lesbian” became the most viewed video category worldwide.
- The Transgender category surged +58%, becoming the #2 most viewed.
- “Queer” searches ↑ 132% and “bisexual” ↑ 88%.
Pornhub frames this as a cultural step forward—more openness, more representation.
But representation in mainstream porn is rarely authentic.
Instead, porn often fetishizes queer identities, reducing them to arousing stereotypes:
- “Lesbian” content overwhelmingly centers male fantasy, not actual lesbian relationships.
- “Transgender” categories often eroticize trans bodies in demeaning, objectifying ways.
- Femboy content (which entered the global Top 10 for the first time) frequently blends youth-like femininity with objectification.
Porn may look inclusive, but its lens is commercial, not compassionate.
It takes identities and turns them into searchable tags and novelty fetishes.
Maturing MILFs: Rebranding Age Into a Sexual Category
MILF content soared again this year:
- “GILF” ↑ 129%
- “50+” ↑ 105%
- “Real woman” ↑ 98%
- “No makeup” ↑ 136%
Pornhub celebrates this as “natural beauty” appreciation.
But porn’s version of “embracing aging” is simply commodifying it.
Age becomes a niche. A genre. A category.
Instead of challenging cultural bias around aging—especially for women—porn reinforces the idea that a woman’s value is tied to how arousing her life stage is for viewers.
Porn doesn’t promote body acceptance. It sells sexualized archetypes.
It’s telling how the term “Real Woman” had a large uptick in searches and reflects consumers’ desires to find a real connection in a superficial counterfeit.
Cheating & Affairs: Infidelity as Fantasy Template
Cheating-related searches spiked dramatically:
- “Cheating” ↑ 94%
- “Caught cheating” ↑ 53%
- “Sneaky cheating” ↑ 148%
One viral pop-culture scandal involving ColdPlay and a kiss cam, even caused “office affair” searches to spike +210%.
Pornhub frames this as cultural curiosity.
But seeing cheating in porn conditions the brain toward:
- secrecy
- betrayal
- eroticizing deception
- voyeurism into others’ relationships
Porn doesn’t show the consequences of broken trust.
It glamorizes the moment of betrayal.
The Pornhub Objectification and Fetishization of Race: One of the Most Concerning Patterns in the Report
This is where the 2025 report becomes especially troubling.
Across the world, nationalities and racial identities don’t merely appear as descriptors.
They appear as sexual categories.
The World’s Racialized Top Searches:
From the PornHubs 2025 Report, the following races are included in the global top 20 search list.
- “Pinay” ranked #3
- “Latina” ranked #6
- “Asian” ranked #10
- “Japanese” #12
- “Korean” #20
Now, some of these searches might make sense geographically if people are looking for performers from the country they live in or that match their ethnicity. However, when you look at the breakdown by country, these genres don’t directly correlate with the country from which the user searches. Plenty of people in France searched for Latina (top 4), and in the United States, Asian, Latina, and Ebony all made the top 6.
These aren’t simply demographic interests. They’re signs of how porn turns race into an erotic commodity.
How racial fetishization appears in the data:
United States:
Top searches: “Latina,” “Asian,” “Ebony”.
These terms aren’t neutral—they reflect long-standing stereotypes:
- Latina women portrayed as fiery, hypersexual
- Asian women portrayed as submissive
- Black women portrayed as aggressive or available
- Black men portrayed through “BBC” stereotypes
Porn doesn’t challenge racial bias—it magnifies and reinforces it.
Why racialized porn categories are harmful
When porn repeatedly portrays certain races as:
- more sexually available
- more submissive
- more dominant
- more exotic
- more aggressive
…it reinforces racial stereotypes that spill into real interactions.
Research Maddox, A., & Neal, A. (2012). “Racialized Sexual Scripts: Exploring the Influence of Pornography on Black Women’s Sexuality.” Journal of African American Studies.Copy Callander, D., Holt, M., & Newman, C. (2012). “Just a Preference: Racialised Language in Gay Men’s Online Sexual Encounters.” Culture, Health & SexualitCopy Sun, C., et al. (2016). “Racism and Sexism in Pornography: A Content Analysis.” Gender & Society.Copy Fasoli, F., et al. (2018). “Fetishization and Objectification in Sexualized Racism.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.Copy shows that racialized porn consumption strongly relates to:
- biased expectations in dating
- racialized sexual “preferences”
- dehumanization of partners
- entitlement toward bodies of specific races
- increased acceptance of sexual aggression against racialized groups
Porn shapes perception.
Perception shapes behavior.
And behavior affects real people—not categories.
Generational Shifts: Young Viewers Are Being Shaped by Hyper-Stimulation
Gen Z, the largest demographic on Pornhub, watched:
- VR porn +271% more
- Cosplay +192% more
- Hentai +171% more
This signals a troubling pattern:
Porn is becoming less like real sex—and more like immersive fantasy.
The younger the viewer, the more extreme or stylized the content tends to be.
This can dull responsiveness to real intimacy and create unrealistic expectations.
Age-Verification Laws & Pornhub’s Defensive Tone
Pornhub suspended access to several countries (France, parts of the UK, US states) over new age-verification laws.
Their language frames regulation as:
- “futile”
- “symbolic”
- “unenforceable”
But these laws arise because children are accessing porn at rates never seen before.
Rather than acknowledging this crisis, Pornhub dismisses it.
That’s not responsibility—it’s damage control.
The Global Takeaway: Pornhub’s Data Doesn’t Just Reflect Culture—It Shapes It
Across categories, the 2025 Year in Review shows a world:
- increasingly escaping into porn as entertainment, identity exploration, and emotional coping
- exploring sexuality not through relationships, but through hyper-stimulated digital fantasies
- internalizing racial stereotypes through fetishized search categories
- normalizing power imbalances, cheating, and unrealistic expectations
- spending more time alone with devices than connecting with partners
Pornhub celebrates these trends.
But from a public health, relationship, and cultural perspective, this data should concern us deeply.
Porn is not just content—it’s conditioning.
Why This Matters
Pornhub’s 2025 report reveals a clear pattern:
People are turning to porn to define sexuality instead of using porn to express it.
And because porn is built around performance—not intimacy—this leads to:
- warped expectations
- desensitization
- loneliness
- compulsive use
- racial bias
- disconnection in relationships
We can do better—for ourselves, for our relationships, for our culture.
Your Support Matters Now More Than Ever
Most kids today are exposed to porn by the age of 12. By the time they’re teenagers, 75% of boys and 70% of girls have already viewed itRobb, M.B., & Mann, S. (2023). Teens and pornography. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense.Copy —often before they’ve had a single healthy conversation about it.
Even more concerning: over half of boys and nearly 40% of girls believe porn is a realistic depiction of sexMartellozzo, E., Monaghan, A., Adler, J. R., Davidson, J., Leyva, R., & Horvath, M. A. H. (2016). “I wasn’t sure it was normal to watch it”: A quantitative and qualitative examination of the impact of online pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of children and young people. Middlesex University, NSPCC, & Office of the Children’s Commissioner.Copy . And among teens who have seen porn, more than 79% of teens use it to learn how to have sexRobb, M.B., & Mann, S. (2023). Teens and pornography. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense.Copy . That means millions of young people are getting sex ed from violent, degrading content, which becomes their baseline understanding of intimacy. Out of the most popular porn, 33%-88% of videos contain physical aggression and nonconsensual violence-related themesFritz, N., Malic, V., Paul, B., & Zhou, Y. (2020). A descriptive analysis of the types, targets, and relative frequency of aggression in mainstream pornography. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49(8), 3041-3053. doi:10.1007/s10508-020-01773-0Copy Bridges et al., 2010, “Aggression and Sexual Behavior in Best-Selling Pornography Videos: A Content Analysis,” Violence Against Women.Copy .
From increasing rates of loneliness, depression, and self-doubt, to distorted views of sex, reduced relationship satisfaction, and riskier sexual behavior among teens, porn is impacting individuals, relationships, and society worldwideFight the New Drug. (2024, May). Get the Facts (Series of web articles). Fight the New Drug.Copy .
This is why Fight the New Drug exists—but we can’t do it without you.
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