During the ceremony, Adult Video News presented AVN Awards (often referred to as the Oscars of porn[2][3][4]) in more than 100 categories.

[6] However, Justice League XXX: An Axel Braun Parody[2] and Angela 3 each won six awards, tied for the most honors at the show.

In terms of movies, the big winners were Justice League XXX: An Axel Braun Parody and Angela 3, each with six awards.

[14] Comedian and master of ceremonies Aries Spears cracked jokes and appeared in several comedy skits with various adult industry luminaries.

For the first time, content released exclusively on membership websites was eligible for AVN Awards consideration in any sex scene category.

AVN felt he violated its code of conduct based on a Rolling Stone article published in November 2017, in which he was accused of sexual misconduct.

[17] As the show was beginning, AVN used a video segment to pay a tribute to adult-industry personalities who had died since the 2017 awards show: James Baes, Sean Barnett, Ron Harris, Hugh Hefner, Morton Hyatt, Sonny Landham, Radley Metzger, Jocalyn Pink, January Seraph, Greg Steel, Michael Zen, Roxy Nicole, Olivia Nova, Olivia Lua, Yurizan Beltran, Shyla Stylez, August Ames.