2024 will be another year not forgotten any time soon. A look at the biggest trending Google searches can serve as a reminder for just some of the events and situations that have shaped our world over the last 12 months.
The following chart, via Statista's Anna Fleck, looks at the most-googled terms between January 1 and November 23.
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At the top of the trending news-related searches was the U.S. election.
With 3.7 billion people having had the opportunity to go to the polls worldwide this year, 2024 has been dubbed a ‘super year’ for elections. In November, the victory of Republican nominee Donald Trump against the Democratic Party’s pick Kamala Harris will have major implications both domestically and abroad, in terms of trade and foreign policy. Other elections this year included BJP leader and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi winning a third term in office, despite losing a parliamentary majority, and the Labour Party’s Keir Starmer ousting the Conservative Party after 14 years in power.
The second fastest growing news search term was “excessive heat”.
As of November, 2024 was on track to be the warmest year on record. It was a year when more than 1,300 people died during the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia due to heat.
In the world of music, Sean “Diddy” Combs was the most searched-for artist among the English-speaking world this year.
Combs has been at the center of sexual assault, rape and sex trafficking lawsuits. The next most searched-for artists were Usher, Linkin Park, Sabrina Carpenter and Justin Timberlake.
In terms of movies this year, the ones to garner the most search attention included Inside Out 2, an animated Pixar and Disney movie about different emotions personified as well as the Marvel superhero movie Deadpool & Wolverine and Saltburn, a thriller and social commentary on wealth.
This year, Google also revealed the top earworms around the world. The eclectic mix of “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone, “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” by Creepy Nuts and “Die With a Smile” by Lady Gaga were the three tunes that were looked up most frequently using the “hum to search” function.
Finally, the most prolific people searched for this year included both Trump and Harris together with Princess Kate, who was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year and after treatment is now reported to be cancer free.
Sadly, not all of the world's well-known and popular people made it to the end of 2024. The most high-profile passing, at least in terms of Google Search queries, was that of One Direction singer Liam Payne.
According to Google Trends’ methodology, the round up of searches in 2024 excludes data from China, Iran and North Korea.
