Where can you find the Grimace Shake (a recipe), The Menu (a movie) and Matt Rife (an actor) in the same place? The answer is likely only in one: Google’s list of 2023’s most-searched terms.
From pop culture moments and pivotal zeitgeist figures to major current events and memes, here's a quick synopsis of this year’s most-searched terms.
The most-searched story of the year was the Israel-Hamas War, with OceanGate, the submersible that imploded on its way to the Titanic site, taking the second spot. Hurricanes Hilary, Idalia and Lee, respectively, completed the rest of the top five news stories.
The stats have settled this summer’s Barbenheimer debate, with Barbie landing this year’s spot as 2023’s most-Googled movie, beating out its opponent Oppenheimer who took the second spot. As for TV, The Last of Us reigned supreme as the number one most-Googled show. Followed by Ginny & Georgia and Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.
Buffalo Bills‘ Damar Hamlin was this year’s most-Googled person after the NFL player collapsed on the field during a January game; Hamlin was also 2023’s most-searched athlete. Jeremy Renner nabbed the second spot on the list, followed by Travis Kelce, Tucker Carlson and Lil Tay.
The most Googled musician was Jason Aldean, who also wrote the most searched song: Try That in a Small Town.
The “trends” portion is one of the more entertaining lists, spotlighting the internet’s most memorable moments from the year - not to be confused with “meme” list which deemed Kevin James, Ohio, Police girl, Folding chair and Smurf cat the this year’s best. For this year’s top trends, the Roman Empire hyper fixation - in which men are asked how often they think about the aforementioned period in history - snagged the top spot.
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