Hey xHamster Fans!Over the holidays, we looked deep into our crystal ball to see what porn trends we can expect to see in 2018. We pulled out mountains of data (and watched more than a few of your favorite videos) to see how your tastes have been changing, and how we expect them to see them change anymore in the new year.Whether you’re one of the hundreds of studios that works with us, one of our thousands of amateur uploaders, or just a porn fan, we hope that this helps you understand how and why your porn is changing.Globally we saw a 2.4% increase in percentage viewership by women in 2017 as women made up an ever larger part of the overall viewing community. This is trend we’ve seen consistently in recent years. Not only are more women coming online, they’re coming at a greater rate than men are.The real story might be emerging markets. South Africa and Saudi Arabia both saw double digit percentage of women in their audience, reflecting changing attitudes towards adult content, particularly among younger viewers.Meanwhile, increased restrictions on adult content in countries like Turkey led to fewer women taking the risk of going online. And while women of South Korea increased in total number, they fell as percentage of the total viewing population.You can see the difference in the two graphs below.For 2018, we expect to see women to outpace men as a growth market for porn. Most porn has historically been made for a male audience (this is not to say that women didn’t watch it, of course).However, we’ve seen two things happen in the past decade. First, the rise in amateur porn (coupled with upload sites like xHamster) has meant that more women are producing porn than ever before, and bringing with them a new approach that may resonate more with other women.Second, easier access to adult content has meant that women can enjoy with less stigma. There is still a misconception that women do not enjoy adult material. Data is proving that wrong.Globally, women now make up 26% of the audience. Of course, some countries those number still have a ways to go.But they’re also increasingly affecting what is most popular.The top search results for overall in 2017 were:JapaneseMomIndianArabMassageHowever, look how that changes when we segment out men and male-identified visitors.As women come online in increasing numbers, as we’re seeing in countries like Honduras and Dominican Republic, where women now make up half of the viewers, we expect that there will be a greater emphasis on lesbian and family-oriented porn, two categories that women consumers dominate.Globally, porn traffic to xHamster grew by 8.9% last year. However, certain patterns were discernible. Traffic in Southeast Asia spiked, as more communities came online. Countries that had previously blocked porn sites saw their traffic spike, while others, facing anti-porn legislation, mandatory filters and blocks, or campaigns against porn, saw traffic fall. (The US was among the latter, perhaps to increasing censorship in corporate networks :-( )The greatest growth was in South Korea, where porn has been traditionally banned, but where the population is currently experiencing a sexual revolution . Traffic tripled in the past twelve months.We also saw a huge jump in Indonesia, where porn site have been banned since 2008. But when the government cracked down on social media , it seems to have driven many to sneak around the ban (using VPNs or other networks) find explicit images. Similarly, a violent crackdown on gay sex by Indonesians may have driven people from in-person hook-ups to porn.We’ve also seen a shift in who we’re watching. Continuing a trend we’ve seen in years past, viewers are shifting away from lighter complected ethnicities, like German, Italian and French, to more Mediterranean nationalities. (Japanese still dominates searches, but even it is down 37% from just a year ago.)Sometimes, the data even surprises us. After years of more extreme sex acts, we’ve seen an overall decrease in some of the biggest trends of recent years. Anal dropped nearly 20%, as did searches for stepmom. Babysitter and casting couch videos are also on the way out. Meanwhile, searches for more traditional “family” porn — and relatively staid fetishes like “handjob” and “pantyhose” seems to be on the rise.Did the Trump election augur a more conservative sexual future?Well, maybe in the US. Worldwide, we’re seeing a global explosion of interest in fetish and subjects that had not been given much attention before, like BDSM (up over 100% last year), and gay content.The above just amounts for some of the data we looked at this year.So what do we see coming in 2018?We see a move away from extreme content, and a greater demand for more traditional porn content. This is driven by an increasingly female audience, as well as more conservative regions come online, with less specific demands as to content.For years, lighter skinned performers have been the most sought after — particularly by US audiences. But global trends — and the popularity of Mia Khalifa — seem to be shifting audiences away toward performers and productions from away from those with European or Japanese features, to those with South American, African, Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern ancestry.VR production and consumption still has its challenges, but the audience is growing at a rapid clip. We saw a 47.4% jump in searches for VR over the past year, and we expect that audience demand in 2018 will drive innovation to make the videos better and more accessible. We’ve even launched a platform to make it happen.We’ve also seen interest in sex dolls nearly double in the past year, with a 97.4% jump in search frequency. We introduced the crowd-designed xHamsterina this past summer, and intend to push more heavily into this field in the new year.#######We’ll be digging through data throughout the new year, to help fans and producers better understand the changes in the industry. Have a question, or want a deeper dive on the data? Reach out and we’ll help you understand how our dynamic world sexuality is changing!Alex HawkinsVice President, xHamster