There is a noticeable split screen amid Apple’s glitzy keynote: iPhone owners clicked away, while Android users did not. Traffic from people on iPhones fell sharply as the presentation got underway, according to Pornhub Insights, though Android traffic ran slightly ahead of a typical day.
IPhone audience clicked in, adult traffic declined
As the keynote got started, Pornhub claims iPhone user traffic dropped about 16 percent compared to baseline levels. The trough aligned with flagship phones: for the iPhone 17 announcement, traffic among iPhone users was approximately 16.6 percent lower. Announcements for the thinner iPhone Air and the Pro lineup led to similar, if modestly smaller, declines of around 15.6 and 15.8 percent, respectively.
The drop was not uniform throughout the show. When the AirPods Pro 3 segment played, traffic rose a little to about 12.9 percent below average, suggesting that accessories don’t quite have quite the same grip as new iPhones. The Apple Watch Series 11 brought viewers back once more, though traffic was off about 15.3 percent. Hours after the stream ended, there were also still fewer iPhone invites than usual, indicating people stuck around for the post-show coverage and social chatter.
Android users hardly budged — in fact, they went up
On Android, nothing was unusual. Pornhub says traffic from Android devices was up nearly 2 percent on an average day during the keynote window. That divergence indicates an uncomfortable truth for the competition’s platform behavior: Apple’s live events marshal its base quite heavily, while the broader Android population is far less likely to stop what they’re doing for Cupertino’s reveals.
Third-party measurement supports the notion of concentrated, instead of widespread, attention. Services like Similarweb and Cloudflare Radar have detected surges to Apple’s web site and streaming services during keynotes, while the broader mobile web activity holds steady. In other words, the enthusiasm coalesces around iOS users and Apple-curious audiences, not the entire mobile universe.
Real time attention mapping to product segments
The traffic curves are analogous to those of product hierarchy. iPhone disclosures drive the lowest troughs, Apple Watch brings down a mid-teen dip and accessories like AirPods cushion the blow. That ordering also syncs with consumer purchase intent data from analysts at IDC and Counterpoint Research, who have long positioned iPhone hardware as the heart of Apple’s revenue and mindshare.
It also mirrors a pattern seen across live tentpoles: high-risk, high-reward segments draw people from discretionary browsing; lower-risk segments accommodate casual multitasking. The real-time turn-ons at Pornhub serve as a kind of perverse attention barometer for the tech crowd.
A recurring pattern during tentpole moments
Pornhub Insights has long observed traffic wobbles around marquee events — think championship games, big TV finales, gaming showcases. Plummets of single to low double digits are commonplace during those windows, and steeper dips focused among the audiences most committed to the event. The mid-teen drops for Apple’s phone segment place it on the high end for tech presentations, hinting at how sticky the iPhone reveal continues to be for its core users.
Nielsen-style second-screen behavior is also at work, however. Viewers move to YouTube or Apple’s site for the stream, then on to social platforms for analysis, before returning to entertainment and adult content. Typically, under the Google Trends microscope, you’ll see the same surge in branded search volume through the keynote that peaks at the iPhone segment and diminishes after hands-ons and first-look posts go out.
What brands and publishers can learn from this
For marketers, the message is tactical: if they cater to a largely iOS audience, do not, do not, do not, release a time-sensitive promotion the day an Apple keynote is due, let alone the iPhone block. Newsrooms and creators, on the other hand, can anticipate spikes in Apple attention minutes before, during and after the stream.
For platforms, the lessons are operational. Phasetwo Companies specializing in adult sites, streamers and publishers can expect elastic demand, event driven and by device. CDNs and ad stacks that can be dynamically adjusted to rapid swings in iOS traffic will be able to withstand these peaks and troughs with zero wasted spend or capacity.
The headline: Apple’s show predictably sucks attention from iPhone owners most of all — and the iPhone unveil remains the keynote’s strongest gravity well.
