'Porn for women' was the top spiking Pornhub trend in 2017

Pornhub, one of the world's most popular adult websites, has revealed that the top three search terms of 2017 by its randy users were "Lesbian", "Hentai" and "Milf".

And in a year when women were successfully exposing sexual harassment in myriad industries, it appears that the #MeToo movement may have even impacted on traffic, the site said.

Statistics published Tuesday (9 January) in its annual review – looking back at trends from the past 12 months – noted that 'porn for women' was a dominant term.

In fact, it was the top trending search overall throughout the year, spiking by over 1400%.

"2017 seems to have been the year where women have come forward to express their desires more openly," commented Dr. Laurie Betito, a sex therapist and director of Pornhub's Sexual Wellness Centre.

Betito continued: "From the 'me too' movement to prominent females the likes of Hillary Clinton and Nikki Haley on the world stage, women are feeling more empowered and they have found their voice. This is a sign of things to come."

The average proportion of female visitors to Pornhub worldwide was roughly 26% of all viewers, the website revealed. It said that the US was, by far, the top country by traffic.

Detailing the most popular search terms, Pornhub said that 2017 was the third year in a row that 'lesbian' had been the number one searched term worldwide. Hentai – which is an explicit subgenre of Japanese anime – was likely a way for people to detach from reality, it added.

"The world is moving at a pace the likes we have never seen before and as such, stress levels have gone way up," Betito said. "Hentai is a way for people to disconnect from reality and delve into the world of total fantasy, forgetting about all the stresses that real life brings."

She added: "Good, bad or indifferent, Hentai is an escape, not much different than seeing a sci-fi movie at a local theatre for a couple of hours of mindless distraction."

In total, there were more than four million videos uploaded to Pornhub during 2017, including 810,000 amateur clips. In total, 595,482 hours of video were uploaded - a whopping 68 years of pornography if watched continuously. In the UK, top topics were 'mature' and 'dogging'.

Other terms favoured by the Brits included "step sister", "massage", and "British chav."

The report said that the amount of data streamed last year – an astounding 3,732 petabytes worth of content - was "enough to fill the storage of all of the world's iPhones currently in use."