How Did COVID Change The Porn Industry? (5 Interesting Reasons!)

Although it sort of feels like the COVID pandemic is behind us, the truth is that it’s still having effects on the porn industry to this day.

In fact, people’s porn habits changed so dramatically during the onset of the pandemic, that the entire industry now operates differently than it used to in the past.

So, what exactly changed? In this article, I’ll be covering five different major differences that came about with the pandemic. I find them pretty interesting, so let’s get started!

1. People Jumped To Interactive Platforms

If you think about this one, it makes a lot of sense.

During COVID lockdowns, people were lonelier than ever. A lot of people spent time completely isolated from others, and even those with large social circles couldn’t go out and spend time with each other like you could before. So, because of that, they started getting their social and intimate needs taken care of online instead.

This means that platforms like camsites and phone sex websites experienced a massive surge in volume – there were more customers than ever, because, well, people crave a connection with people. This is a basic human need, and it doesn’t go away just because the government is telling us to avoid large gatherings.

I personally started doing phone sex during this time, and even as a beginner the phones were off the hook. At the time, I thought this call volume was relatively ‘normal’, and was excited that I was off to such a fantastic start. And although I’m happy people aren’t as lonely as they were back when the pandemic first hit, sex workers do have it quite a bit harder now.

Anyway, each time somebody tries something new – be it cam sites, or phone sex, or some new way to enjoy porn, there are going to be people that decide they like it enough to stick with it.

So, interactive platforms like these are still experiencing growth today, as more users find them, and existing customers continue to return to them!

2. Studios Took A Hit – And Amateur Porn Grew In Popularity

Another interesting change that happened during COVID was that people’s preferences shifted away from polished productions from major studios, and more towards amateur porn.

Amateur porn has been trending upward for a long time, but saw massive growth during COVID, and even throughout 2022 – with a 179% increase for phrases like ‘real’ and ‘homemade.’

Again, I feel this comes down to the craving for real intimacy and connection that we lost during COVID. It could also be that people are simply sick of the formula that major studios use. Same old performers, same silly plotlines, same positions, same over-exaggerated acting, same fancy light setups… the list goes on and on.

Sometimes it’s fun to see some blonde bimbo with giant fake tits. Other times, we want something real – especially if we’ve been missing it in our real lives.

Truthfully, I wouldn’t be surprised if this trend continues, especially as more people create their own content independently.

That brings me to my next point!

3. Onlyfans Exploded With New Creators

The onset of the pandemic brought a LOT of new performers into the adult space. And hey, I suppose I’m one of them!

Onlyfans exploded with new creators, bringing in over 50,000 in just March 2020 alone. Today, there are over 3 million registered creators on the platform.

People turning to adult work makes sense. A lot of people lost their jobs. The economy was in shambles. Companies were not hiring, even for skilled positions.

Remember the phrase, ‘essential business?’ Some weren’t even allowed to operate, even if they wanted to.

So, surprise surprise, a lot of people turned to adult work. In theory, it’s a great business. People falsely believe that it’s really easy money (hint: it’s not.) There aren’t really a lot of startup costs, you can snap nudes with the phone camera you already have. Many desperate people hoped that adult work – regardless of how they felt about it, would be the solution to their financial troubles.

Of course, out of the millions of registered creators, only a small percentage are active, and an even smaller percentage make any substantial money.

Still, Onlyfans as a whole grew from 7.5 million registered users pre-pandemic, to over 230 million users today. Reddit’s adult subreddits, which used to be a great way to find quality niche porn, are now flooded with Onlyfans girls trying to promote. Granted, that’s also Reddit’s fault – a lot of porn posted needs to be published by the rights holder, who has undergone verification, rather than allowing random photos from the internet.

Anyway, some mark the pandemic as the end of true amateur pornography, from couples who made it from fun – and the beginning of the Onlyfans era.

4. Porn Usage Overall, Grew Significantly

We’ve kind of touched on it a bit already, but the 4th interesting change was that porn usage grew dramatically – up 25% in the first month of lockdown alone.

People were bored, alone, and with nothing to do. None of us had money to spend on luxuries to entertain ourselves with. Porn is free, exciting, and we can goon out to it for hours without getting bored.

It’s not really any secret that porn can be addictive, and once we develop a habit of watching it, it’s easy for us to crave more.

Porn usage has not only gone up, but people are spending a larger average time watching porn as well, according to Pornhub’s 2023 Year In Review statistics.

So, the pool of people watching is growing larger!

5. Many Smaller Sites Shut Down

Sadly, due to the lockdowns and the fact that it wasn’t safe for groups of people to be together, many porn studios suffered during this time.

Many people don’t know this, but larger studios may have as much as a year’s worth of content pre-recorded, that they can still release even if filming stops. It’s not uncommon for studios to shut down for as long as a few weeks at a time, so making sure that they still have new content to post makes sure nobody knows anything’s going wrong, and subscriptions aren’t canceled.

Smaller studios however, don’t have the budget or capability to have such a large catalog of unpublished content. They aren’t particularly profitable, so they can’t tie up money in months worth of extra videos just in case of an emergency.

And although porn usage went up during the pandemic, this doesn’t mean that money was spent proportionally. Remember, we were all broke and struggling, so we didn’t have money to spend on luxuries like porn.

Unfortunately, many studios had to begin reposting or reenhancing old videos, which never goes over well with customers. Subscriptions were canceled, and many studios went under.

If they didn’t shut down completely, they were absorbed by bigger websites, along with their catalog. And when larger sites absorb smaller sites, not all of that content gets published again.

This is sorta true with any business during rough economic times. Smaller businesses shut down, or get bought out by larger companies, who benefit from discounted sale prices. Sadly, a lot of good studios are now gone forever.

Closing Thoughts

Overall, it’s hard to say whether COVID turned out to be a good or a bad thing for the porn industry. It really was a game of winners and losers. Smaller studios lost out the most, but bigger studios suffered too, as people’s preferences shifted towards amateur porn, and they weren’t able to film new content.

On top of that, hundreds of thousands of new independent creators popped up, further dividing up the shrinking money pool since people didn’t have cash to spend.

Interactive platforms like cam sites and phone sex benefited the most, but speaking as a phone sex operator myself, it definitely appears to have died back down after lockdowns and social distancing requirements were no longer in place.

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Thanks for reading, and wishing you a wonderful day!

~ Lexi