The porn industry is as expected a huge and profitable market where a lot of money flows. We’ve dug into the industry to get insights that no one has ever gotten.
Our research shows among others, that the pornography industry has never had this big revenue and profits. It is in other words peaking right now, and the pandemic is one of the primary reasons for it. Read more about this and also how the websites earn money.
Table of contents:
- Porn industry revenue & profits
- How do porn sites make money?
- The biggest porn websites and the companies behind
- About the Lead Researcher
- Use of data
Key Findings
- The revenue from the global porn industry is $100 billion and is expected to increase to $117 billion in 2030.
- The revenue from the US porn industry is $13 billion
- In comparison: the NFL generated revenue of around $12 billion in 2022, and Netflix generated revenue of around $31 billion in 2022.
- How do porn sites make money: 70% of revenue comes from ads (banners & aff. links), 20% of revenue comes from subscription plans (live webcam, premium, etc.), and 10% of revenue comes from online porn games
- On average porn sites increased revenue by 25-40% as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic
Porn industry revenue & profits
The porn industry’s annual revenue is global $100 billion, and the porn industry’s annual revenue in the US is $13 billion. The porn industry size has never been more extensive, and it’s expected to increase more in the next 10-20 years.
Profits from pornography are also super high (estimated at $56 billion). We’re seeing contribution margins that are close to 50%. This is due to the changed business model. Where the industry earlier sold DVDs and videos they are now selling digital products and earning money from ads. Which do not have as many variable costs as the physical products.
| How Big is Porn (by Channel) | Market Size |
|---|---|
| Internet (85%) | $85 billion |
| Magazines (10%) | $10 billion |
| DVDs, VHS, etc. (5%) | $5 billion |
| Total | $100 billion |
The development & the growth from 2000-2022 (+estimations to 2030)
The porn industry is developing fast and has done it write very high growth rates since the pandemic. See the growth here:
| Year | Billion USD |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 45 |
| 2001 | 47 |
| 2002 | 49 |
| 2003 | 51 |
| 2004 | 52 |
| 2005 | 53 |
| 2006 | 54 |
| 2007 | 54 |
| 2008 | 59 |
| 2009 | 64 |
| 2010 | 62 |
| 2011 | 66 |
| 2012 | 64 |
| 2013 | 69 |
| 2014 | 73 |
| 2015 | 74 |
| 2016 | 77 |
| 2017 | 81 |
| 2018 | 82 |
| 2019 | 84 |
| 2020 | 86 |
| 2021 | 97 |
| 2022 | 100 |
| 2023 | 102 |
| 2024 | 101 |
| 2025 | 104 |
| 2026 | 106 |
| 2027 | 114 |
| 2028 | 112 |
| 2029 | 111 |
| 2030 | 117 |
Pandemic porn impact on earnings
On average porn websites’ revenue increased by 25-40% during COVID-19.
This is because people stayed at home, and in general, had more alone time. We also saw that sales of sex toys rose mentionable.
How do porn sites make money?
Porn sites do primarily earn money from the traffic they receive. They typically try to monetize in different ways. Here are the top 5 most used and profitable ways:
- Banner ads (The ads you typically find in the sidebar or when scrolling up/down on the porn site)
- Affiliate links (Linking to sex dating sites; when users buy a membership at the sex dating site the porn website gets paid – either by revenue share or Cost-per-acquisition (CPA)).
- Subscriptions (signing up for a premium plan and getting e.g. no ads, access to live chat, etc.)
- Online porn games (pay x dollars for a package in the virtual game)
- Donations (users give money to the site to help it. They do this because they love the content and the way it’s run by the owners)
The biggest porn websites and the companies behind
The 5 biggest porn companies own websites that cover 80% of all porn-related searches and therefore also 80% of all revenue.
Number 1: MindGeek
MindGeek is the world’s largest porn company and has more than 1.000 employees. The company is worth more than $740 million. It handles more than 115 million daily visitors on its brands/websites. Founded in 2004.
Website:
https://www.mindgeek.com/
Brands:
Pornhub.com
Redtube.com
YouPorn.com
Tube8.com
Brazzers.com
XTube.com
Pornmd.com
Mofos.com
Number 2: Larry Flynt Publications (LFP Inc.)
Founded in 1976. Has more than 300 employees, and is worth around $500 million. The owner is called Larry Flynt, and he started the Hustler Magazine in 1974. He owns sex shops, strip clubs, and porn films.
Website:
https://www.larryflynt.com/
Brands:
barelylegal.com
asianfever.com
Number 3: WGCZ Holdings
WGCZ has the porn websites with the most visitors. It is a private company in that matter that the owners do not say anything, and it’s almost impossible to find public numbers on it. So we find it difficult to rank this. But the best guess would be that it should be listed as number 3.
We expect the company to be worth around $300 million based on its monthly traffic.
Website:
N/A
Brands:
xvideos.com
xnxx.com
Number 4: Hammy Media Limited
Founded in 2007. Hammy Media Limited is the owner of the porn website: Xhamster.com. It has more than 1.4 billion visitors every month and is the fourth most popular pornography website in the world. They have around 70 employees and are worth more than $60 million.
Website:
N/A
Brands:
xhamster.com
About the Lead Researcher
I’m Jacob, the researcher behind this statistical piece. My educational background is a Master’s in Business Intelligence from Aarhus University in Denmark. I’m super interested in all the dynamics of companies, especially the basics of a company (what’s the business model, what’s the market size, and company stats such as revenue + P&L statements).
This is exactly what I’m doing in this report. Here I’ve investigated the Porn niche and its players. I’ve done this to get a better understanding of how this niche works and also to figure out how lucrative it is.
My research is in most cases mixed methods; including both quantitative data as well as qualitative data.
Hope you enjoy the above (if you do, I think this pornhub statistics would be interesting for you).
Use of data
You can use the findings in this report if you reference the source: Bedbible.com. Do you want access to our dataset and/or transcripted interviews? Please reach out to us at: researchcenter@bedbible.com.