Why VR is the Future of Porn
Is porn losing its appeal? It doesn’t matter how deep you fall down the rabbit hole and what kinks you try, plain old 2D porn gets old after a while. It’s like watching your favorite popcorn flick, over time you lose interest. The characters become flat, the plot well-worn. The same’s true with porn. It gets old. But that’s why virtual reality porn is so exciting.
VR porn isn’t simply media you consume. It’s media you experience. You’re not just watching the action. You’re in the adult film, participating in VR sex, going along for the literal ride. That’s why VR porn is going to be such a vital important form of media in the future. And not to sound dramatic, but VR sex will help drive the evolution and development for virtual reality technology.
Sound overstated? Not if you realize how big the pornography industry already is and how much revenue it could drive for VR.
The Porn Industry is Already a Multi-Billion Dollar Industry
Do you know how big the porn industry is? Simply put, it’s huuugee. Once relegated to seedy theaters and backrooms at video rental stores, for many years mostly the brave and intrepid watched porn. These days, porn is part of the mainstream and is regularly watched in households the world over.
Now, over 40 million Americans regularly visit porn sites and roughly 70 percent of young male adults check out porn at least once per month. It’s estimated that roughly 12 percent of the many billions of webpages out there are related to porn. Considering how many pages are on non-porn sites, like Wikipedia and CNN, that’s an absolutely massive number.
People talk about Netflix’ing and chilling, but porn may well draw more visits and views than the popular streaming service. Consider Pornhub alone. In 2019, Pornhub enjoyed 42 billion visits, with the average person spending around 10.5 minutes on the site. No one’s quite sure how much money the porn industry generates, but some estimate it could generate nearly $100 billion per year.
And as big as these numbers are, VR porn may end up taking the industry to all-new heights. Why? VR porn offers an experience that people can participate in, and at the end of the day, most people would rather partake in a fun activity than passively observe, especially now in the era of social distancing.
Why Porn Will Drive Virtual Reality
So how big is virtual reality porn going to be? Right now, no one is certain. But we have good reason to believe that the VR industry will be huge, and that porn will be one of its biggest components. The virtual reality industry was worth just $7.9 billion in 2018 but is projected to rise to $44.7 billion by 2024.
Despite the fact that countless people enjoy porn, the industry still has a reputation as a “sin” industry. For that reason, a lot of virtual reality thought leaders skirt around VR porn. But here’s the thing: VR porn is going to help drive the entire virtual reality industry. Why? Porn is producing money for the industry, while many other VR activities simply aren’t.
Pornhub is racking up 500K plus VR porn searches per day. Already, there are over 2,600 VR videos on the website. While VR is popular for porn, for video games and other industries, adoption remains low. Consider that on Steam, no VR game cracked the top 25 as of writing this article.
As of now, more than half of the top virtual reality websites are linked to porn. For the porn industry, virtual reality offers a way to generate revenues by providing high-end, niche content. Porn will provide a revenue stream, especially in the early adopter stage. Over time, VR media will become more popular, and while porn VR will grow, it may make up less of the pie.
Either way, you can bet that VR porn is here to stay and will remain a vital part of the industry. And virtual reality will continue to offer an excellent way to get in on the action, rather than passively observing.
