What you need to know
- Google’s Year in Search reveals the top trends in Search for 2023 based on various categories.
- Hogwarts Legacy and Baldur’s Gate 3 were among the top trending game searches of the year, both globally and in the United States.
- The meme “How often do you think about the Roman Empire?” was among the top trending searches.
- Google also reveals the top searches of all time to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Year in Search.
With 2023 coming to a close, we’re starting to see many end-of-year lists and awards. Google already revealed its top apps and content from the Play Store and Google TV, and now the company is revealing the top results from its biggest product: Search.
With Year in Search, Google lists the top trending search results of the year based on various categories. This includes the top news, games, movies, songs, and more. Google has also included search results from apps like Maps and Lens to provide more insight into the types of places people are going to and the ways they’re using these apps.
For the top movies, it’s no surprise that “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” took the first and second spots, respectively, in the U.S. and globally. And despite receiving no nominations at The Game Awards, Hogwarts Legacy was also the top-searched game of the year, with Baldur’s Gate 3 and Starfield making the top 10 lists in the U.S. and globally.
Some exciting trends of 2023 also made the list of top searches, such as the rather unique NPC trend, where TikTok streamers pretend to be nop-playable characters (NPCs) from video games by repeating phrases and movements. There’s also the Instagram Notes number trend that takes advantage of the new feature introduced late last year. According to Know Your Meme, users would enter codes beginning with the letter “o” (i.e., o99, o45, or o22) into their notes that correspond with the first initial of their crush’s name.
“How often do you think about the Roman Empire?” also made it to the list as the top trending “how often” search, followed by “How often is the World Baseball Classic?” and other similar searches.
Below are some of the Year in Search lists Google provided, specific to the United States:
Top trending news (U.S.):
- War in Israel and Gaza
- Titanic submarine
- Hurricane Hilary
- Hurricane Idalia
- Hurricane Lee
- Maine shooting
- Nashville shooting
- Maui fire
- Idaho murder trial
- Canada wildfires
Top trending movies (U.S.):
- Barbie
- Oppenheimer
- Sound of Freedom
- Everything Everywhere All at Once
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie
- Creed III
- John Wick: Chapter 4
- Five Nights at Freddy’s
- Cocaine Bear
Top trending shows (U.S.):
- The Last of Us
- Ginny & Georgia
- Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story
- Daisy Jones & The Six
- Wednesday
- That ’90s Show
- Kaleidoscope
- Beef
- The Idol
- The Fall of the House of Usher
Top trending games (U.S.):
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Connections
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Starfield
- Diablo IV
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- Atomic Heart
- Dead Island 2
- Sons of the Forest
- Mortal Kombat 1
Top trending musicians (U.S.):
- Jason Aldean
- Ice Spice
- Oliver Anthony
- Peso Pluma
- Joe Jonas
- Sam Smith
- Matt Healy
- Kellie Pickler
- Kim Petras
- Sexyy Red
Top trending “How often” (U.S.):
- How often do you think about the Roman Empire?
- How often is the World Baseball Classic?
- How often is a blue moon?
- How often is the World Cup?
- How often do trains derail?
- How often is a Friday the 13th in October?
- How often should you get a COVID booster?
- How often is the State of the Union?
- How often does California get hurricanes?
- How often is Punxsutawney Phil correct?
Keep in mind that these lists don’t necessarily represent the top searches but instead show the top trending searches, meaning those that have had a spike in activity, particularly when compared to 2022. You’ll be able to find these results published on Google’s Year in Search website.
That said, since Google celebrated its 25th birthday this year, the company has also revealed the top searches of all time (since the list began). This includes people, places, moments, and other topics that were the most searched in their specific category. For example, “Star Wars” was the most-searched intro music of all time, Bollywood movies were the most-searched movie genre, Pikachu was the most-searched Pokémon, and “Naruto: Shippuden” was the top searched anime.
Meanwhile, you can always check out Google’s Best of Play and Best of Google TV awards that were recently published.