Why Is Porn Inspired By Video Games So Popular?
January 21, 2019 by Justin Lehmiller
It seems as though every time a video game becomes a major hit, porn inspired by that game becomes a big thing. For example, when the Pokémon Go craze hit in 2016, “Poképorn” took off. Videos were uploaded to major porn sites featuring animated Pokémon sex, as well as humans having sex while dressed up as their favorite Pokémon characters. Searches for Pokémon were notably higher, too, as reported by sites like Pornhub and xHamster.
Something similar has happened more recently with the popular video game Fortnite, which is a third-person shooter game in case you aren’t familiar with it. Fortnite-inspired porn is apparently in such great demand that “Fortnite” was one of the top 20 most-searched terms on Pornhub in 2018!
So why is that? Why is video game-based porn so popular? I explored this question in a recent article I wrote for Men’s Health. Like most questions about human sexuality, the answer is complex. However, the short version is that a big part of the appeal stems from our need for sexual novelty—humans crave novelty and newness to keep their libidos revved up. Animated porn in general (this also goes for hentai) has the potential to fill this need by depicting things that might otherwise be difficult or impossible to show in traditional porn—and it can do so with characters who have hypersexualized bodies, like video game characters often do.
Such porn can also offer an escape from reality, which is something that can help people relax and enjoy themselves. In fact, escaping reality is one of the most common reasons people report having sexual fantasies, so it would make sense that people would go to porn for a similar reason.
To learn more about the psychology behind video game porn, check out the full article over at Men’s Health.
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Dr. Justin Lehmiller
Founder & Owner of Sex and PsychologyDr. Justin Lehmiller is a social psychologist and Research Fellow at The Kinsey Institute. He runs the Sex and Psychology blog and podcast and is author of the popular book Tell Me What You Want. Dr. Lehmiller is an award-winning educator, and a prolific researcher who has published more than 50 academic works.
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