Game of Thrones aired its season premiere Sunday night to a record 10.1-million viewers, stealing PornHub visitors away from their usual Sunday night me-time.
The company reported that traffic was down 4.5% in the US during the live showing as opposed to a regular Sunday — but this isn’t even the most significant dip during an episode of HBO’s hit show.
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Back in 2016, the season six finale robbed 5.2% of US viewers away from the popular pornography site. Another notable shift happened during the fourth episode of season six, in which Sansa Stark and Jon Snow reunited.
Turns out family sometimes is more important.
This may sound like a win for the Game of Thrones, but another live showing doubled these numbers just last month: the testimony of ex-FBI director James Comey. Comey went before the Senate Intelligence Committee to testify on the Russian interference in the US 2016 election — and Washington DC did not want to miss it.
Pornhub was one of the main casualties of the Game of Thrones’ season seven premier which aired Sunday
PornHub recorded a 10.1% traffic dip in the city at the time of the hearing. A few days later, when US Attorney General Jeff Sessions testified, the site saw a whopping 12.2% decrease.
More regular interruptions in people’s private viewings include major annual events like Ramadan, Christmas, the Super Bowl, and various award shows.
Last year, 15% of PornHub viewers in India avoided the site at the start of Ramadan. On Christmas Eve, traffic was down 37% worldwide. For the Super Bowl, US traffic fell 32%.
Game of Thrones still has time to catch up, though: the series finale is famously the most watched episode of the season, and with its record-breaking viewership for the premier it’s not difficult to imagine it will pull even more viewers away from their pornography — even just for an hour.
