ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Gawker racked up a staggering 8 million page views by posting the Hulk Hogan sex tape, prompting owner Nick Denton to crow that his website “scored with … Hulk sex,” jurors in the $100 million invasion-of-privacy trial learned Thursday.

The huge spike in clicks also led the news and gossip site to dole out the maximum, 20 percent bonuses to its writers and editors, the Florida jury heard.

An email entered into evidence revealed that Denton sent a mass message to Gawker workers on Oct. 10, 2012 — six days after the secretly made Hogan tape hit the Web — with the subject line, “Phew.”

In the email, Denton hailed his site’s success at attracting readers by posting topless photos of Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton, as well as the hidden-camera recording of Hogan in a canopy bed with his best friend’s wife.

“Gawker scored with royal breasts and [this month] Hulk sex,” Denton wrote in a passage read aloud in court.

In a videotaped deposition, former company COO Scott Kidder was heard testifying about the total number of page views generated by the Hogan tape, which more than doubled a Dec. 26, 2012, Gawker report that put the tally at 3.9 million.

Kidder said he couldn’t obtain the data needed to translate the clicks into dollars of revenue.

But he said the Web traffic blew past all the targets that Gawker had set to award monthly bonuses to its staffers.

In other videotaped testimony, Gawker’s digital-media expert, Peter Horan, admitted that the company used “viral marketing” to lure people to its explicit sex video of the pro wrestling legend and reality TV star.

An exhibit displayed to the jury showed a message posted on Gawker’s Facebook page on the day the video was posted.

“It’s probably time you watched this snippet from the Hulk Hogan sex tape with a woman some claim is Bubba the Love Sponge’s wife. Work’s over. You’re fine,” the message said.

Horan — who said he earned $400 an hour — denied the message was “clickbait,” but conceded that Gawker’s “efforts to get people to share (the video) would be viral marketing.”

Porn broker Kevin Blatt — who helped market the Paris Hilton sex tape — also testified on video that he got paid $3,000 by the sex.com website to try to convince Hogan to sell the rights to his tape.

Blatt said he never expected Hogan to agree and really sent the letter as a publicity stunt.

Blatt also said that while “the media has an insatiable desire to profit from pornography and sexually related stories,” sex tapes featuring male celebs had only “limited” commercial value compared to ones featuring famous women.

The testimony and evidence were intended to “show how Gawker truly benefited by the posting of this sex tape,” and also lay the groundwork for a plaintiff’s expert who will estimate Friday how much money Gawker made off it, Hogan lawyer David Houston said outside court.

Also Thursday, the jury got its first glimpse of the tape, via a local Florida news report about Hogan’s suit.

A brief clip of the recording was played during cross-examination of University of Florida journalism professor Mike Foley, who appeared as a $350-an-hour expert witness for Hogan.

After testifying that he couldn’t imagine a “reputable news outlet” publishing video of the pro wrestling legend having sex with his best friend’s wife, Foley had to eat his words when confronted with a 2012 broadcast by Tampa’s ABC Action News.

The station’s report included several seconds of grainy, black-and-white footage that showed Hogan’s bare butt as he leaned over the bed.

Foley admitted to Gawker lawyer Michael Sullivan that the trusted local news organization “went a bit over the line.”