No, 'House Of The Dragon' Hasn't Increased People's Thirst For Weird Porn

House of the Dragon is seemingly a huge hit with audiences – but TV ratings aren’t the only way to measure a show’s success, there’s also the WIPI, or “Weird Internet Porn Index,” for those of you who may be unfamiliar with the term that we just made up this very moment. Recently, a graphic has been circulating on social media claiming that Pornhub has seen a spike in searches for videos relating to one of the show’s ickiest relationships. 

The image, it turns out, is actually from a satirical social media account and not representative of any real data – but you can see why some fans would buy into the post’s claim, given the franchise’s well-documented ties with internet porn. Game of Thrones had a veritable stranglehold (but not in a kinky way) on online adult entertainment back when it was on TV; so much so that Pornhub’s traffic reportedly plummeted during the hour in which Game of Thrones was on.

Also, at the time, Pornhub positively brimming with clips of the nudity-filled show, prompting HBO to take legal action against the site. Of course, Game of Thrones also inspired a myriad of porn parodies (although none as riveting as that Star Trek: The Next Generation-themed masterpiece) which were basically just full episodes of the show, but with the production values of a small town Renaissance Fair, and more sex the exact same amount of sex. 

More unusually, fans also created hardcore Game of Thrones content featuring the likenesses of the actual actors. How? With CGI built from “character models and textures ripped straight from the HBO-licensed Game of Thrones video game spin-off.” The results of which ended up resembling a (much more adult) Polar Express. So while House of the Dragon might be popular, it’s not like the fans are going full “horny Zemeckis” … yet. 

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Thumbnail: HBO/Telltale Games