Everyone loves a sexy party, especially ones that last for several days and with tens of thousands of people. Mardis Gras and Carnival both share a common root, as a last chance for people to over-indulge in food (and flesh) before the Catholic period of Lent begins.
Although celebrated in many places, Mardi Gras is most often associated with New Orleans, and Rio De Janiero with Carnival. Our friends at Vocativ asked our statisticians to see which of the two festivals gets Pornhub visitors more excited.
Congrats New Orleans. It’s Mardi Gras! On February 28th, aka Fat Tuesday, searches containing “Mardi Gras” increase by 467% compared to daily averages. Searches containing “Carnival” see a lesser (but still quite significant) increase of 291% on February 28th. Carnival officially starts on Friday the 24th, but we see searches for both festivals begin to increase that day.
What kind of sexiness are these party seekers searching for? The top Mardi Gras related searchs are “Mardi Gras Fuck”, “Mardi Gras Flashing” and “Mardi Gras Public Sex”. Their Carnival counterparts are most likely to search for “Brazilian Carnival Orgy”, followed by Portuguese language searches “Brasil Orgia Carnaval”, and “Rio De Janeiro Carnaval”. Fun!
Even though Rio and New Orleans both see an influx of party seeking visitors during this time, we still find a decrease in traffic to Pornhub during the festival period. The peak traffic drop in New Orleans of -8% occurs on both the 26th and 28th. In Rio however, traffic drops immediately when the festival begins on Friday the 24th, with the peak drop of -20% happening on Monday the 27th.
After each festival ends on Tuesday the 28th, traffic in Rio returns to normal, but interestingly, traffic in New Orleans increases by +12% over the daily averages on March 1st. Are people getting in one last visit to Pornhub before they begin Lent? Well good luck, we look forward to your next coming and res-erection.