Come late-December, every media outlet scrambles to assemble some short-sighted year-end review and adult entertainment is no different than any other industry. Adult Empire, one of the few indispensable outlets of porn-related news and knowledge, also released its annual report of porn trends and highlighted a few developments we at Mr. Pink’s have also been reporting on.
Adult Empire’s report, 2016: The Best of the Best, details fan-favorite performers, and both home video and Video-On-Demand releases while a second report, 2016: Top Trends on AE, lists the top top trending pornstars, DVD genres, studios, and adult search terms. Among the clear winners were many acclaimed stars and studios – Julia Ann and Alexis Texas; gonzo and anal porn; Evil Angel and Wicked Pictures, for example – as well as a few more recent trends. Interracial sex and fucking a “family” member both came out of 2016 more popular than ever with Greg Lansky’s Blacked and fetish performer Jodi West trending hard in their respective categories. Blacked and Tushy, Lansky’s anal series, also cleaned up in the DVD and VOD departments, though it’s the latter viewing platform that is attracting viewers of more varied taste. (Trans, lesbian, and European titles occupy more top slots in VOD than in physical sales.)
Romantic erotic hardcore with artful cinematography also proved a itself a strong-selling niche this year, as Adult Empire’s rankings show. The Submission of Emma Marx: Exposed, a BDSM-heavy feature from New Sensations tied with Blacked’s Interracial Orgies as DVD title with the longest reign at #1 – five weeks while also tying for first place in the VOD report.
What do these notable trends of last year mean for adult entertainment in 2017? That is still a little murky if you go by AE’s twin reports. There’s no mention of 4K, UHD, VR, or 3D as trending search terms and Camille Adore isn’t exactly roaring up the most-searched-for pornstar listings (not yet), but those things seemed certain to be huge in the new year. Are the pollsters wrong about this, too? Will porn viewers really ignore all the latest techno-trends and continue selecting their porn for its (gasp) content? Only time (and future Adult Empire reports) will tell.