It seems like Pornhub is facing some stiff competition, with the popular adult video hosting site reportedly losing up to one million users per day. As of July 2025, Pornhub ranked as the 18th most-visited website in the world, still ahead of platforms like Twitch, Pinterest, and Netflix. However, despite its dominance in the adult entertainment sector, the site seems to be losing its momentum.

Several factors are contributing to this decline. Recently, authorities in the USA banned Pornhub and other similar adult sites in 17 states, leading to a brief ban in France, protests against new age verification rules due to privacy concerns, and a high-profile ban in the United Kingdom.

New legislation in the UK looks like it's affecting Pornhub's traffic (Jack Taylor / Stringer / Getty)

The UK’s controversial approach of showing explicit material in documentaries, while requiring users to provide identification, credit card details, or facial scans to access adult content, has sparked a lot of criticism. The new Online Safety Act legislation in the UK appears to be having a noticeable impact on Pornhub's traffic. According to data experts at Similarweb, between July 24 and August 8, 2025, the site saw a sharp 47% decline in daily visits in the UK, dropping from 3.2 million visits in July to just 2 million in early August.

Despite these figures still being substantial, it’s a significant drop for the site that was once the most-visited adult platform on the internet. During this same period, competitors like OnlyFans also saw a 10% dip in traffic, and XVideos lost about 47% of daily visitors as well. This timing coincides with the implementation of the Online Safety Act, which enforces stricter regulations and the threat of hefty fines.

While some UK residents have attempted to bypass the new regulations by using VPNs, warnings about their potential risks have largely been ignored. In fact, some individuals have gone as far as using video games to trick facial recognition systems. Despite these efforts, Pornhub's traffic in the UK has dropped substantially. The rise in VPN usage has made it difficult to track the full scope of these shifts, as many users are obscuring their location.

Pornhub's spokesperson confirmed the decline in traffic, acknowledging that although it was anticipated, it is still a setback for the company. They pointed out that while traffic for compliant sites like Pornhub has decreased, smaller, less regulated sites have seen a significant increase in visitors. This trend, they argue, is typical when more stringent regulations are introduced, and it shows that people may be turning to less-reliable, unregulated alternatives.

The Online Safety Act places the responsibility on platforms hosting adult content to ensure that proper measures are in place to prevent minors from accessing illegal or harmful content. However, despite the regulations, the internet often outpaces legislation, and many users have found ways around the new laws, including downloading apps that assist with VPN usage. These apps have quickly become some of the most downloaded on the UK version of the Apple App Store.

As Ofcom estimates, around 14 million people in the UK watch online pornography, but with VPN usage becoming more widespread, tracking these statistics has become increasingly difficult. Pornhub and its supporters argue that these new laws will drive users toward more dangerous and unregulated sites, but for now, the decline in traffic and the shift to smaller platforms show that these changes are indeed taking their toll.