Google releases its ‘most searched’ list for 2023
Barbenheimer fever took over when Barbie and Oppenheimer were released.
The California-based tech giant Google has released its Year in Search roundup of 2023’s top global queries, ranging from key pop culture moments, to the loss of beloved figures and tragic news carrying worldwide repercussions.
The ongoing Israel-Hamas war topped news trends in 2023, per Google’s global data, followed by queries related to the Titanic-bound submersible that imploded in June, as well as February’s devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.
Google’s top trending person this year was NFL’s Damar Hamlin, who experienced a near-death cardiac arrest on the field during a January Buffalo Bills game, but has since completed a celebrated comeback.
Actor Jeremy Renner, who survived a serious snowplough accident at the start of 2023, followed.
Meanwhile, the late Matthew Perry and Tina Turner led search trends among notable individuals who died during the year.
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In the world of entertainment, Barbie dominated Google search’s movie trends this year, followed by Oppenheimer and Indian thriller Jawan.
In TV, The Last of Us, Wednesday and Ginny & Georgia were the top three trending shows in 2023.
Yoasobi’s Idol was Google’s top trending song on search. Jason Aldean’s Try That In A Small Town, which soared in the charts after controversy this summer, and Shakira and Bizarrap’s Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53 followed.
Bibimbap was the top trending recipe.
Inter Miami CF, the new home of Argentine soccer superstar Lionel Messi, led Google’s sports teams trends.
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And in the US specifically, many consumers spent 2023 asking why eggs, Taylor Swift tickets and sriracha bottles were so expensive – while “rizz” (recently named Oxford’s word of the year ) was a frontrunner for trending slang definition inquiries.
Country-specific lists and trends from years past can be found on Google’s “Year in Search” archive.
The company says it collected its 2023 search results from January 1 through to November 27.
To mark the search engine’s 25th birthday, Google also released top search data “of all time” across various specific categories.
The most-Googled Grammy winner of all time has been Beyoncé, for example, while Portuguese soccer great Cristiano Ronaldo is the highest-searched athlete, and the most-searched movie or TV cast is Harry Potter.
