Spotify Wrapped might be the most anticipated stats of the year now, but Google’s been releasing its annual search data for over two decades. To see what the world was curious about this year, check out Google’s Year in Search, which just dropped for 2024.
Google Has Revealed 2024’s Top Searches
Google seems to be a big believer in the concept of “sharing is caring.” In November, Google Shopping dropped its list of trending gifts, leveraging Google’s US-based search analytics ahead of the holiday shopping peak. Now, Google is serving us an even more comprehensive list of top trending searches—and this time, it’s on a global scale.
Google’s Year in Search 2024 not only delivers a list of search terms, but also offers line graphs and maps depicting where and when topics were most popular.
So, What Did We Care About in 2024?
The list, published by Google Trends, breaks down top searches by categories like Trending, Entertainment, and Google Maps searches. It even includes the top songs found through Google’s Hum to Search feature.
You can further refine the results by country.
As it turns out, what the world cared about most in 2024 was sports. Globally, four of the top five trending searches were related to sports tournaments and matches, with the number one slot going to “Copa América.” The final and only search in the top five queries not related to sports was “Liam Payne,” the singer of One Direction fame who passed away tragically in October.
However, when narrowing the results to the United States, the top five trending searches were a different story. Replacing the sports theme was politics, with three of the five spots being related to the 2024 US presidential election. The remaining two spots go to the New York Yankees and Connections. Shout out to The New York Times for creating a game obsession that rivaled Wordle.
One of my favorite niche discoveries was that the second most popular song found using Hum to Search was “Bling Bang Bang Born” by Japanese hip-hop duo Creepy Nuts. The song went viral on social media app TikTok in 2024, so it makes sense that the tune was a popular internet search. But listening to it, it’s hard to imagine people attempting to sing or hum this song, given its extraordinarily fast pace.
While the world has undoubtedly faced heavy challenges this year, it’s interesting to see that many Google Searches contain some levity. Maybe people are taking a break from doom-scrolling on social media to satiate their curiosity with Google. In any event, it’s easy to spend hours deep diving into Google’s latest data. Feel free to summon your inner Sherlock Holmes—even if BBC’s Sherlock isn’t one of this year’s top searches.
