2016, the birth of VR porn

For a lot of people, 2016 was a pretty hard year. We witnessed the last breath of many worldwide acclaimed artists and figures, we saw the American elections tearing the world up, we heard about a lot of terrorism-linked acts all over the planet…But it wasn’t all that bad. Why? Because 2016 was the year that saw the birth and rise of VR porn. I guess we can say that it was a pretty good year after all…

Rise and Shine, VR porn

In April 2016, the giant actor in the porn industry, PORNHUB partnering with virtual reality porn producer BaDoinkVR, launched its Virtual Reality category, with only 30 videos to start with. They also offered 10,000 pairs of free VR glasses on that day to celebrate. PORNHUB gives us insights on porn consumption at the end of every year, and that year, we definitely saw the explosion of the VR concept. The success of that category was instantaneous, and it has continued to grow pretty fast ever since. By the end of the year 2016, which means in around 9 months, the views of the Virtual Reality videos grew by more than 300 percent. There were about 38 millions searches for VR content during that period, and what started with a reasonable 30 videos turned into a massive 1800 videos, and counting.

A divided world

The Virtual Reality became a worldwide trend pretty fast, but we can clearly see that some countries are taking the lead. In term on consumption, the PORNHUB insights report shows that Asian countries seem to be the ones who are more interested in the concept, proportionally to their total porn searches. China would actually be the first, followed by Thailand and Hong Kong. We also find Philippines and Vietnam in the top 10 from the same region. USA is not in the top of the list yet, but that s because that listing counts the VR content searched PROPORTIONALLY to the total searches of porn. Europe is pretty low in the list too, except for Norway and Finland who made it into the top 10. But that doesn’t mean Americans and Europeans don’t like Virtual Reality Porn! We can already see dozens of high quality content VR porn sites popping out of some of the most influential countries from the old continent. France, and website like LECIGARAPAPA or LAPIPESANSTABAC are good exemple.

A millennial trend

PORNHUB studied showed, with no real surprise, that the the majority of Virtual Reality Porn consumers are from 25 to 34 years old. Those are part of the guys usually called « Millennials ». There are a few explanations about why they are the biggest consumers. For example, they grew up with new technologies and are more than familiar with them. They are at the age where they have a job, but not yet a family to take care of, which means they have more money to spend on entertainment, and more time to enjoy virtual pleasure...

A Virtual Reality Future

We can already say that 2016 will be remembered as the birth of VR porn, but that 2017 will probably be recognized as the moment where it took over the World. Now that the concept is growing and starting to reach every corner of planet Earth, you better get ready for what’s coming…