'Tis the season for wrap-ups, as Google just announced its Year in Search 2025 to show us what the world's been searching for, alongside listening to on Spotify or watching on YouTube.
You can see a small selection of highlights in the accompanying The Keyword blog post, but the dedicated site is well worth playing around with, so you can learn what's happening on a global or regional basis in detail. But let's take a quick look at the overall results to take the pulse of the world's Googlers through the past year.
Looking at the global stats, the top overall searches this year were for India's big cricket matches against England and Australia, the newly announced Club World Cup rugby tournament, assassinated political activist Charlie Kirk and, at the top, rather conveniently for Google — its own Gemini AI platform.
Tech topics like Deepseek AI and the iPhone 17 also appear in the top 10, but Gemini being number one seems wild to me. Given how many Google apps and services now offer direct access to Gemini features, it seems weird that so many people would still be searching for it. I can only assume this volume of searches is from people looking for hints and tips, but even still, I'm keeping my tinfoil hat nearby in case of emergency.
Kirk's assassination also led the top of news-related searches, followed by queries on Iran, the U.S. Government Shutdown, the election of Pope Leo XIV and the LA Fires. And accordingly, Kirk's death was one of the most searched passings of the year, with Ozzy Osbourne, Hulk Hogan, Michelle Trachtenberg and Diane Keaton filling up the rest.
The Pope was among the top five people searched this year, with Tyler Robinson (suspected of Charlie Kirk's assassination), Jimmy Kimmel, Kendrick Lamar and d4vd (musician and a person of interest in an LAPD murder investigation) ranking higher.
Most-searched movies, shows, games and more
Moving from current affairs to hobbies and interests, Google's results tell us that Mikey Madison is the most searched-for actor of the year. That seems inevitable when you see that it's "Anora," the movie in which she starred, that sits at number one for cinematic searches, impressively beating "Superman" and the "Minecraft Movie" to the top spot.
In music, the words to DtMF by Bad Bunny were this year's most sought-after lyrics, although the power of Taylor Swift will not be denied, as she claimed spots five to eight with songs from her latest album, Life of a Showgirl. And on TV (or at least streaming services), it was "Monster: The Ed Gein Story" that claims the crown, with lead actor Charlie Hunnam coming in sixth in top searches for individual stars.
We see in the Sport category that boxer Terence Crawford was this year's most popularly searched athlete, with golfer Rory McIlroy coming second. Soccer teams Paris Saint-Germain and S.L. Benfica were the most sought-after teams, while the FIFA World Cup for soccer and the Asia Cup cricket tournaments were apparently the most popular events in the 2025 sporting calendar.
Meanwhile in the gaming world, Arc Raiders was the top-searched title of the year, followed by Battlefield 6, Strands (yep, the NYT puzzle), Split Fiction and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. For food, hot honey was the top trend, with Marry Me Chicken in second being the top-ranked dish. Special shout-out to the alarming-sounding "lasagna soup" in sixth place — I'll definitely be looking up what the heck that is later.
The Hum to Search trending songs are all recognizable if you've spent any time on TikTok or Instagram Reels this year. The top five consists of Golden by HUNTR/X (from the animated smash hit "KPop Demon Hunters"), Ordinary by Alex Warren, PASSO BEM SOLTO by ATLXS, Anxiety by Doechii and Pretty Little Baby by Connie Francis.
We can also see some trending locations from around the world in Google Maps. So congratulations go to Livraria Lello from Porto, Portugal; Kyoto Station in Japan; and the Lalbagh Botanical Garden in Karnataka, India for being the number one bookstore, public transport station and botanical garden this year.
The impact of AI
Other than Gemini being the most searched term on Google this year (again, very convenient, Google), the blog post details how users have changed the way they search the internet due to the AI alterations made to Google Search.
Queries starting with "What's the deal with…", "Tell me about…" or "How do I..." have all seen increases in the past year — a big change from the keyword-driven way Google has usually been used in previous years. It's way too soon to know if this is going to be a trend that sticks around, or fundamentally changes the way Google finds and displays results going forward, but it's just as fascinating as the top ten rankings we went through above.
Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds.
More from Tom's Guide
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
