Inside Pornhub’s 2025 Year in Review: What the Numbers Reveal About Porn Trends, Culture, and Sexual Health in 2025

What Pornhub’s 2025 Year in Review reveals about changing sexual culture, curiosity, and connection.

Every year, Pornhub’s Year in Review offers a rare view into the world of adult content consumption. Much like the Kinsey Reports revolutionized our understanding of sexual behavior in the mid-20th century, Pornhub’s data—millions of search terms and billions of visits aggregated across global users—has become a de facto cultural snapshot of sexual interests and online behavior.

The recently released 2025 Year in Review paints a striking picture of how users are engaging with adult content amid rapid cultural, legislative, and technological change. From shifting category preferences to the impact of regulatory actions like age verification laws, this annual insight report goes beyond prurience and offers valuable data for clinicians, educators, policymakers, and anyone curious about how sexual expression is evolving in the digital age.

This post will unpack the most notable trends in the 2025 report, contextualize them with broader academic research and public health data, and explore what these numbers might mean for individuals’ sexual lives and relationships.

And if you'd rather watch than read, feel free to check out my YouTube video on this topic!

1. A Year Shaped by Culture: Top Categories & Search Trends

LGBTQ+ Content Dominates the Charts

According to aggregated coverage of the 2025 Year in Review, LGBTQ+-themed adult content saw a remarkable surge in popularity across user demographics:

• “Lesbian” content emerged as the most viewed category sitewide. It was especially prominent among women, echoing long-standing trends where lesbian categories tend to outpace purely male-targeted terms among female viewers.

• “Transgender” content climbed into the second most popular overall category, suggesting that interest in diverse gender expressions continues to grow.

• Perhaps most strikingly, “femboy” became the top searched term in PornhubGay’s charts, leaping into the platform’s overall top 10 categories.

  
  

This growth intersects with broader cultural conversations about identity, representation, and desire. While critics sometimes argue that interest in niche categories reflects fetishization, the data suggests complexity: users are not merely searching for pornographic stereotypes but specific identities and aesthetics that resonate personally or culturally.

Pride, visibility, and evolving desire reflected in culture and search trends.

Why it matters: From a sex therapy perspective, tracking these trends can help clinicians understand shifting sexual interests without judgment. Research in sexual behavior shows that sexual curiosity and exploration are normal aspects of adult sexuality (e.g., motives for pornography use include pleasure, exploration, stress management).

Importantly, this pattern does not necessarily indicate pathology—it may reflect expanding visibility and acceptance of queer identities, not just sexual interests.

2. Regulatory Pressures: Age Verification & Access Restrictions

In 2025, age verification laws had a major impact on Pornhub’s accessibility in multiple jurisdictions.

U.S. and International Policy Changes

• By year’s end, 25 U.S. states had enacted laws requiring strict age verification on adult websites, leading to Pornhub blocking access in many states rather than comply with onerous ID mandates. (Them)

• In the United Kingdom, post-July age checks led to a significant drop in traffic and a rise in VPN use as users sought ways to circumvent restrictions. (The Guardian)

• Similar efforts are underway in countries like Australia and under the EU’s Digital Services Act, with regulators aiming to protect minors online. (The Guardian)

Contextualizing Age Verification

These policies aim to prevent minors from accessing sexually explicit content. While well-intentioned, research indicates that age-gating alone doesn’t fully stop youth access; creative workarounds like using friends’ devices, VPNs, or apps mean many adolescents still encounter adult material. For example, a large multi-country study found that around 54–68% of adolescents reported exposure to pornography, with many seeing it weekly.

Adolescent curiosity meets digital access in an era of changing regulation.

This tension places clinicians and educators squarely between two challenges:

1. Supporting healthy sexual development and education, and

2. Navigating real world access to adult content that no law can fully block.

3. Data on Use Patterns: Demographics, Devices & Engagement

While the full 2025 Year in Review report includes detailed analytics, broader web data paints a consistent picture of high engagement across demographics.

Global and Device Trends

• Pornhub remains one of the most visited adult sites in the world, with billions of visits monthly and a heavy tilt toward mobile usage.

• Studies of pornography use generally find that younger adults and men report the highest consumption rates, though women’s use is substantial and often under-reported.

Private viewing habits reflect how easily adult content fits into everyday life.

The mobile dominance aligns with associated issues such as ease of access and habit formation, which some research links to compulsive pornography use patterns. Conditions like compulsive cyberporn use have been explored in clinical literature as involving mechanisms similar to behavioral addiction. 

4. Patterns, Risks & Benefits: What Clinical Research Says

Data from porn trends should never be interpreted in isolation from the broader sexual health landscape.

Not All Use Is Harmful

Research into pornography use motivations shows that people consume adult content for many reasons—sexual pleasure, curiosity, learning, stress relief, fantasy, and self-exploration.

Many adults use porn without it negatively affecting relationships or functioning. In fact, some couples report integrating consensual porn use into their shared sexual lives as a source of exploration and communication.

For some couples, shared viewing becomes part of open conversation about desire and boundaries.

Potential Challenges

However, a growing body of research also points to risks associated with early exposure and high-frequency use, especially among youth:

• Frequent pornography use has been linked with increased mental health challenges (e.g., depression), substance use, and relationship difficulties in some studies.

• Early exposure (before age 13) is common, heightening the importance of comprehensive sexual education and digital literacy.

• There’s ongoing clinical debate about terms like “pornography addiction”; the DSM-5 does not currently classify it as a formal disorder, but pornography-watching disorder (PWD) research is emerging to identify risk factors and associated distress.

  
  

These nuances matter: porn use exists on a continuum. For some, it’s casual and harmless; for others, it intersects with compulsive patterns and interpersonal harm.

5. Implications for Sexual Health, Relationships, & Therapy

As a sex therapist or sexual health educator, how should we interpret these 2025 data?

Talking openly about porn use can be an important step toward insight, balance, and healthier choices.

1. Normalize Diversity of Desire

The rise of queer categories like lesbian, transgender, and femboy content suggests that adult content preferences are diverse and evolving. Clinicians can use this information to reduce stigma and support exploration of sexual identity in safe, consensual ways.

This aligns with research showing that pornography preferences are idiosyncratic and culturally influenced, and not inherently indicative of dysfunction.

2. Advocate for Realistic Sex Education

Given prevalent early access among adolescents, education systems should focus on media literacy, consent, and healthy sexuality—rather than simple prohibition, which research shows is insufficient to curb exposure.

3. Address Problematic Use Compassionately

When pornography use becomes compulsive or interferes with functioning, treatment should be evidence-based and person-centered. Interventions like CBT and motivational interviewing can help individuals understand underlying drivers without moralizing their behavior.

Conclusion

Pornhub’s 2025 Year in Review reflects how digital sexuality is shaping modern intimacy — revealing curiosity, connection, and areas that invite deeper reflection.

Pornhub’s 2025 Year in Review offers more than a list of searches—it offers a mirror into digital sexuality in 2025. We see growing interest in queer content, ongoing policy clashes around age verification, and patterns of use that reflect both normal sexual exploration and potential areas of concern.

As sex therapists, clinicians, and educators, our role is not to judge these patterns but to interpret them responsibly—grounded in research, respectful of personal autonomy, and aware of the complex interplay between digital culture and human sexuality.

References 

• Alvarez-Segura, M., Fernández, I., El Kasmy, Y., Francisco, E., Gallo Martínez, S., Ortiz Jiménez, E. M., & Butjosa, A. (2025). Impact of pornography consumption on children and adolescents: a trauma-informed approach. Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry, 4, 1567649. https://doi.org/10.3389/frcha.2025.1567649

• Andrie, E. K., Sakou, I. I., Tzavela, E. C., Richardson, C., & Tsitsika, A. K. (2021). Adolescents’ online pornography exposure and its relationship to sociodemographic and psychopathological correlates: A cross-sectional study in six European countries. Children, 8(10), 925.

• Brahim, F. B., Courtois, R., Cruz, G. V., & Khazaal, Y. (2024). Predictors of compulsive cyberporn use: A machine learning analysis. Addictive behaviors reports, 19, 100542.

• Englander, E. K. (2025). 17.5 Impact of Pornography Use Frequency on Youth Mental Health and Sexting Behaviors. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 64(10), S362.

• Erdős, C., Kelemen, O., Pócs, D., Paulik, E., Papp, A., Horváth, E., ... & Széll, K. (2025). Pornography-watching disorder and its risk factors among young adults: cross-sectional survey. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 27, e49860.

• Gewirtz-Meydan, A., Feder, H., Nagy, L., Koós, M., Kraus, S. W., Demetrovics, Z., Potenza, M. N., Ballester-Arnal, R., Batthyány, D., Bergeron, S., Billieux, J., Briken, P., Burkauskas, J., Cárdenas-López, G., Carvalho, J., Castro-Calvo, J., Chen, L., Ciocca, G., Corazza, O., Csako, R. I., … Bőthe, B. (2025). Motives for pornography use and women's sexual wellbeing: Insights from a 42-country study. Journal of behavioral addictions, 14(1), 114–130. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.2024.00040

• Saunders, R. (2025). Big data on pornhub insights: Datafication and the making of a new sexual culture. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 31(6), 1847-1864. https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565251363693 (Original work published 2025)

About the author

Dr. Holly is a leading expert in sexual health based in Orange County, certified as both a clinical sexologist and AASECT sex therapist. With extensive experience in sex therapy, sexual wellness, and relationship counseling, Holly provides evidence-based insights to clients in Orange County, the state of California and beyond. Recognized for expertise in sexual trauma recovery, sexual dysfunction, and intimacy, Holly is dedicated to empowering individuals with practical advice and research-backed strategies. For more, follow Holly for expert advice on sexual health and relationships.

Visit www.thehollywoodsexologist.com to learn more and request a consultation.