Winter may have been coming during the Season 7 premiere of “Game of Thrones” on Sunday, but in other, slightly more sordid segments of the entertainment industry, the season debut of HBO’s fantasy series also had a chilling effect.
During Sunday’s season premiere, leading adult-video outlet Pornhub experienced a 4.5 percent traffic drop nationwide.
That’s a “considerable change,” Pornhub noted, given that “Sunday night is one of the most popular times for people to visit Pornhub.”
This isn’t the first time that the dragons-and-swords epic has caused onanists to keep their lap-lances sheathed. The Season 6 “Game of Thrones” premiere in April 2016 also put a dent in Pornhub’s traffic, resulting in a 4.1 percent traffic drop.
Meanwhile, the Season 6 finale last June caused the site’s traffic to plummet 5.2 percent, compared to an average Sunday evening before the season premiered.
Episode 4 of Season 6, “Book of the Stranger,” also had a dramatic effect on Pornhub’s traffic, resulting in a 4.9 percent drop.
Sunday’s season premiere drew 10.1 million linear viewers, but viewership swelled to 16.1 million when counting multiple platforms, making Sunday HBO’s most-watched premiere evening ever — yes, for any series in the pay-TV channel’s history.