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America is in love with gay love.
As steamy same-sex sports romance “Heated Rivalry” continues to win over mainstream television audiences — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani among them — the appetite for male erotica is suddenly skyrocketing with both men and women.
In the weeks since the Canadian streaming series about two hockey players locked in a lengthy affair premiered on HBO Max, adult entertainment site Pornhub has seen a +617% increase in hockey-related searches, with ladies leading the titillated pack by 273% — compared to men at just 148%.
The shifting preference belies a deeper cultural evolution, experts say.
“There has been a broader societal shift toward questioning rigid gender roles, sexual scripts and binaries. As cultural narratives loosen, consumers are increasingly curious about erotic material that deviates from traditional heterosexual templates,” psychologist and author Dr. Shahrzad Jalali told The Post.
Jalali notes that digital platforms and their respective algorithms are exposing viewers to a wider range of NSFW content — thereby normalizing exploration.
As viewers witness the Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov’s (Connor Storrie) relationship blossom, they also are shown a series of steamy scenes that have inspired obsession among fans.
Those in the know say that the show — and gay pornography — both express “masculinity without misogyny,” which could be appealing to women tired of gender tropes in typical adult fare.
“Gay porn removes many of the power dynamics of adult media; there’s no female body being judged, performed on, or framed for the male gaze. Which can make women feel safer, more exploratory and less triggered,” Dom King, a top performer within the genre, told The Post.
King, whose real name is Andrew Lyon, was named the most viewed male performer among female Pornhub viewers last year. Winning over women, whom he lauded as having “higher standards” than men, was a career highlight, he said.
“Women are incredibly perceptive when it comes to authenticity. They can tell when something is being performed versus when it’s real, and they want that real chemistry,” King explained.
King views “Heated Rivalry” not as competition for female viewership — but rather as a starting point for more explicit male-on-male content.
“It’s a good gateway for the industry. For women who are watching the show, it might be their first time really engaging with something like that, and it will make them crave it and seek it out more,” he explained.
And they’re definitely seeking it out. For all of 2025, starting back long before “Heated Rivalry” was released last November, Pornhub statistics show that nearly half of the viewers of male pornography is now female.
Overall, research reveals that viewership of male-on-male content has seen a remarkable surge of 45%, since 2012.
“Over the last decade, our statisticians have been tracing the proportion of female visitors to Pornhub,” the company stated. “They have noticed an upward trend over the years, putting into question the dated umbrella statement: ‘It’s only men who watch porn.’”
Given these figures, there’s a chance that the success of “Heated Rivalry” is reflecting — rather than directing — desire, one expert noted.
“I don’t believe shows like ‘Heated Rivalry’ are driving the consumption of this kind of content. Rather, I think they’ve been successful because the audience was already here,” clinical sexologist Avril Lousie Clark told The Post.
But even if the HBO-shown series is following rather than setting an erotic trend, its popularity is directly influencing the kind of explicit content viewers are searching for.
And the reason they are searching for it — female consumers, specifically — is the way male-on-male content reflects a certain equability of pleasure and power, Clark said.
“When you watch gay porn, desire has a feeling of balance between the performers. It is more likely to show both performers in a dominant or submissive position. It is such a contrast to what you see typically portrayed in heterosexual porn, and as a woman viewer,” said Clark.
According to Clark, the absence of heteronormative power dynamics reminds us that desire is fluid — not a biological assignation.
That’s an opinion echoed by scholar Dr. Lucy Neville, author of “Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys: Women and Gay Male Pornography and Erotica.”
“Although ‘Heated Rivalry’ portrays very fixed sex position roles, you feel that’s because that’s … genuine preference, not because the characters were forced to do it that way,” Neville told The Post.
Clark also said that it’s not surprising that women would seek a venue in which to appreciate the male figure that isn’t heterosexual porn, with its suspect subtext of objectification.
“It really comes down to breaking the chains of being a performative, heterosexual female in heterosexual sexual situations,” said Clark.
Neville notes that “Heated Rivalry” succeeds in delivering both the emotional and the erotic — to an audience less inclined to to separate one from the other.
“Women like to engage with romantic pornography that is still super explicit, but prioritizes sensual connection between the actors,” she said.
Neville’s oft-cited study of women who enjoy male-on-male erotica revealed that during masturbation, women routinely imagined themselves as men having sex with men.
“The general public still thinks women are sexless and only tolerate sex in heterosexual partnerships because men expect it, and left alone to our own devices, we live alone with our cats. The truth is, women have active, internal fantasy lives,” Neville said.
The study also showed that one of the features women dislike about heterosexual porn is that we are rarely shown a man’s face when he orgasms — an apparent wrong more than corrected in multiple scenes from “Heated Rivalry.”
“Men’s faces are really beautiful in that moment. It’s that vulnerability. It’s the openness. In ‘Heated Rivalry,’ particularly the last episode, there are a lot of shots of the characters’ faces showing pleasure and surrender,” Neville explained.
Ultimately, however, the pleasure pro submitted that women are drawn to gay porn because of simple attraction.
“The most common response in my sample of women … was, ‘I think boys are hot, so more boys are better,’” she said.
