Last Tuesday, on November 8, almost every American had their eyes glued to the election news coverage, eagerly awaiting what eventually resulted in Donald Trump’s slight victory over Hillary Clinton. In a country with so much clout over the rest of the world, America wasn’t the only nation tuning in for what many believe to be the demise of the United States.
The global impact of the US election was perfectly summarized by the pornography website RedTube, which tracked their web traffic while the world was watching Trump become the President-Elect. When the polls first started rolling in at 7pm, the porno platform saw a major dip in traffic in a number of countries. For instance, the website took a sudden 26% dip in visitors from Portugal, while Belgium and France showcased a 17% and 16% traffic drop, respectively. Outside of Europe, countries like Colombia, Argentina, and Mexico showed less interest in the outcome of the election, showing just a 1-6% drop in traffic.
RedTube also took an in-depth look at the web traffic within the United States as well, and the statistics were quite telling of how the country felt about the election. Between the times of 4am and 6am on the morning of voting day, the website experienced a major increase in traffic, hinting that Americans were either extremely anxious or excited for the big day (likely a mixture of both). From there, RedTube saw an unprecedented slow down in traffic, dipping 5% around 4pm and reaching -22% by 11pm, when official results began to pour in.
Interestingly enough, the hourly traffic in Canada nearly matched that of the United States, showing that the country’s northern neighbors were concerned with the election results as well. Both countries saw steady traffic from 4am to 10am, but incurred a sudden drop at 11am, which continued on until the following morning. Web traffic statistics also showed that Mexico and Brazil saw a considerable spike when results started coming in at 7pm, despite the fact that hourly traffic rates remained unchanged prior to that.
All in all, RedTube has developed a fun and quirky way to show how the world’s porno watchers reacted to the US election. If their statistics show anything, it’s that the entire world had to search for some form of relief to alleviate the fact that Donald Trump was on his way to becoming the President of the United States.