From February 11 to 15, 2025, the 75th edition of the Sanremo Music Festival took place in Italy. This year marked the return of Carlo Conti as host after five consecutive years under Amadeus. Alongside Conti, several co-hosts alternated throughout the five nights, making this edition a notable one. With record-breaking viewership, the festival also had a noticeable impact on Pornhub traffic.
As part of our yearly tradition, our statisticians analyzed the traffic fluctuations during the festival for Fanpage.it. This year, we focused on three key nights: the opening night, the fourth night dedicated to cover performances and duets, and the grand finale on Saturday. However, this year we also examined the types of searches made by Italian users during the festival period. Our statisticians found searches related to music-themed videos increased by a staggering +77%! It seems that Sanremo fever truly permeates every aspect of Italian life.
Regarding overall traffic, a decline began shortly before the live Eurovision broadcast at 20:45 on the opening night, continuing to drop further as the evening progressed. The most significant drop occurred during the performances of Achille Lauro and Rose Villain, reaching a peak decrease of -13.1%. However, traffic began to gradually recover from that point, eventually surpassing normal levels with a +9.7% increase shortly after the conclusion of the first night’s broadcast.
Looking at the individual Italian regions, we can see the ones that experienced the largest drops were Aosta Valley at -14.3%, Abruzzo at -13.9%, and Liguria at -12.9% (the region hosting the festival). Apparently, the least interested in the show were in Calabria with only a -0.7% drop, Veneto at -1.2%, and Friuli-Venezia Giulia with -2.2%.
The fourth evening of the festival, held on Friday, is traditionally dedicated to cover performances, where the competing artists perform duets with guest musicians or even with each other. This was the first time we analyzed traffic during this night, and we did so because it was the most-watched evening of the year, with a record audience of 13,575,000 viewers.
Traffic saw a sharp decline right as the competition began at 21:00, reaching -13.3%. The most significant drop of the night came during the medley performance by Mahmood, who was also the co-host of the evening, pushing traffic down to -16.8%. However, the trend completely reversed around midnight, right after the electrifying performance by Achille Lauro and Elodie. At that moment, traffic spiked suddenly, continuing to climb until it reached +6.1% compared to usual traffic levels once the episode concluded.
The highly anticipated final night of the festival kept all of Italy on the edge of its seat, culminating in the victory of the young and talented Olly. Throughout the evening, traffic declined steadily, only to experience a sharp drop around 01:00, reaching its lowest point of -14.2%, precisely when the final rankings were announced. However, traffic spiked suddenly right after, suggesting that many Italians might have sought a way to release their frustration over the exclusion of Giorgia and Achille Lauro from the top five.
Comparing this year’s data with last year’s, even though the overall TV viewership was slightly lower than in 2024, the traffic drops this year were more significant (-14.2% compared to -12.2% last year). However, the number of users returning to Pornhub after the show was lower than in 2024. Last year, traffic surged by +29.6% after the finale, while this year, it saw a more modest increase of +10%.
We hope you enjoyed this edition of Sanremo Insights 2025!