What were the top Google search trends of 2024?
Copa América was the top trending Google search worldwide in 2024, followed by the UEFA European Championship and the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Six of the ten global trending searches were sports events. The rest were Liam Payne, Donald Trump, the iPhone 16 and Catherine, Princess of Wales. Google measures these as the searches with the biggest rise in interest compared with 2023, not the most searched terms.
The ranking comes from Google’s Year in Search 2024, which covers searches made between 1 January and 23 November 2024 [1][2]. The infographic by Visual Capitalist’s Voronoi team shows how interest in each of the ten rose and fell through the year, and it makes one thing clear. Most of them were short, sharp spikes tied to a single event or a few weeks of sport.
The table gives Google’s global ranking, the week interest peaked (from Voronoi’s dataset) and what drove each search [1][2].
| Rank | Search | Peak week of interest | What drove it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Copa América | 30 June to 6 July | The 48th Copa América, held in the United States in June and July, won by Argentina |
| 2 | UEFA European Championship | 23 to 29 June | Euro 2024 in Germany, won by Spain |
| 3 | ICC Men’s T20 World Cup | 26 May to 1 June | The cricket World Cup co-hosted by the West Indies and the USA, won by India |
| 4 | India vs England | 18 to 24 February | England’s five-Test tour of India early in the year, and the T20 World Cup semi-final in June |
| 5 | Liam Payne | 13 to 19 October | The former One Direction singer’s death on 16 October, aged 31 |
| 6 | Donald Trump | Early November | The attempted assassination on 13 July and his election win on 5 November |
| 7 | India vs Bangladesh | 15 to 21 September | Bangladesh’s tour of India in September and October, two Tests and three T20 internationals |
| 8 | iPhone 16 | 8 to 14 September | Apple’s launch event on 9 September |
| 9 | Olympics | 4 to 10 August | The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics |
| 10 | Catherine, Princess of Wales | 17 to 23 March | Her announcement on 22 March that she was being treated for cancer |
One correction to the graphic. Its note for India vs Bangladesh says the interest came from an “England-Bangladesh” Test and T20 series. The series in September and October 2024 was between India and Bangladesh, played in India [6].
Why sport dominated global searches in 2024
2024 was an unusually crowded year for international sport. Two continental football championships ran at the same time in June and July, Euro 2024 in Germany and the Copa América in the United States, and the Paris Olympics followed straight after [1]. Cricket added a men’s T20 World Cup in June and two big Indian home series.
Cricket is the reason three of the top ten are cricket searches. The sport has a huge following across South Asia, and India played in every cricket search on the list. It beat England 4-1 in the Test series in early 2024 [4], beat England again in the T20 World Cup semi-final before winning the final against South Africa on 29 June [5], and won both Tests and all three T20 games against Bangladesh [6].
Football tournaments also suit the way Google measures trends. The Euros and the Copa América are held every four years, so 2023 had almost no interest in them to compare with. A search that goes from near zero to millions in a few weeks rises much faster than an always-popular term, which is why tournaments and one-off events so often top these lists.
The people and news stories that trended
Google’s other global lists for 2024 show the same mix of sport, politics and celebrity news [2].
- People (living). Donald Trump was first, followed by Catherine, Princess of Wales, Kamala Harris, the Olympic boxer Imane Khelif and Joe Biden. Mike Tyson, JD Vance, Lamine Yamal, Simone Biles and Diddy made up the rest of the top ten.
- News. The US election was the top trending news search, ahead of excessive heat, the Olympics, Hurricane Milton and a Japanese search about Typhoon No. 10. The CrowdStrike IT outage in July and the Menendez brothers also made the top ten.
- Passings. Liam Payne led the list of people who died in 2024, ahead of the country singer Toby Keith, O.J. Simpson, Shannen Doherty and the Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. Maggie Smith and James Earl Jones were also in the top ten.
- Entertainment. Inside Out 2 was the top trending film and Baby Reindeer the top trending TV show. Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us was the top trending song.
The US list was different from the global one. In the United States the top trending search of 2024 was “Election”, Donald Trump was the top trending person and the comedian Katt Williams was the top trending actor [3]. Google publishes separate lists for more than 60 countries, so what trended in India or Brazil can look very different from the worldwide top ten [2].
How Google decides what is trending
The Year in Search lists are not a count of the most searched words. Google picks out the search terms with the highest increase in traffic over the year compared with the same period the year before. It says it avoids “most searched” lists because words such as “weather” or “news” are popular every year and say nothing about what was different. Google asks anyone sharing the data to call them “trending searches” and not “most searched” [7].
This explains why a single news story can rank alongside a month-long tournament. Liam Payne’s death and Catherine’s announcement each produced one sudden spike, but the rise against 2023 was big enough to put both in the top ten. It also means a term that is searched by vast numbers of people every day, such as YouTube or Facebook, will never appear on the list.
The lists also have a cut-off before the end of the year. The 2024 data stops on 23 November [1], so anything that happened in December 2024 could not trend in that year’s ranking.
How to look up Google search trends yourself
You can check search trends for any topic with the free Google Trends tool at trends.google.com. Its Explore page shows how interest in a search term has changed over time and where it is most popular, and you can compare up to five terms at once. Trending now shows the searches that are rising fastest at the moment, by country.
The numbers in Google Trends are not search counts. Google takes a sample of searches, divides each data point by the total searches in that place and time, and scales the result from 0 to 100, where 100 is the peak popularity in the period you chose [8]. A score of 50 means half as popular as the peak, not 50 searches. Google also removes repeat searches by the same person in a short time and adds a small amount of random noise to protect privacy, so very low-volume terms can show odd spikes [8].
If you need actual monthly search volumes, for example for planning content or advertising, the keyword tools in Google Ads give estimated volumes. Google Trends is better for seeing direction and timing, such as whether interest in a topic is seasonal or growing.
How 2024 compares with 2025
Google’s Year in Search 2025 looks quite different. The top trending global search of 2025 was Gemini, Google’s own AI assistant, followed by India vs England, Charlie Kirk, the FIFA Club World Cup and India vs Australia [9]. Cricket again took two of the top five, but AI and US politics replaced most of the sport. The 2025 data runs from 1 January to 25 November 2025 [7].
Questions about Google search trends
What was the most searched thing on Google in 2024?
Google doesn’t publish a “most searched” list. Its Year in Search 2024 ranks trending searches, and Copa América was first worldwide, ahead of the UEFA European Championship and the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup [2]. In the United States the top trending search was “Election” [3].
What is the difference between trending and most searched?
A trending search is one whose interest grew the most compared with the year before. The most searched terms are the same everyday words every year, such as weather, news and big websites, which is why Google ranks by growth instead [7].
Who was the most searched person on Google in 2024?
Donald Trump was the top trending living person worldwide in 2024, followed by Catherine, Princess of Wales and Kamala Harris. Liam Payne was the top trending person who died that year [2].
What does 100 mean in Google Trends?
100 is the highest level of interest for that term in the time and place you selected. Every other point is scaled against it, so 50 is half as popular as the peak and 0 means there wasn’t enough data [8].
How far back does Google Trends data go?
Google Trends data goes back to 2004 for web searches. Year in Search roundups have been published every year, and the Year in Search site links to past years’ lists [2].
What was the top trending Google search in 2025?
Gemini was the top trending global search of 2025, ahead of India vs England, Charlie Kirk, the Club World Cup and India vs Australia [9].
Sources
- Visual Capitalist, Top Trending Google Searches Worldwide in 2024, Voronoi, with the dataset of peak weeks. This is the original post for the infographic.
- Google, Year in Search 2024, global trending lists for searches, news, people, passings and entertainment.
- Google, Year in Search 2024, United States.
- Wikipedia, English cricket team in India in 2023 to 24.
- Wikipedia, 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup.
- Wikipedia, Bangladeshi cricket team in India in 2024 to 25.
- Google, The Year in Search data methodology.
- Google Trends Help, FAQ about Google Trends data.
- Google, Year in Search 2025, global trending searches.
Last reviewed 12 November 2026
