From international sports milestones to the loss of major celebrities, 2024 was a year packed with headlines.
To get a pulse on what the world was most curious about, Visual Capitalist's Kayla Zhu looks at what the world Googled the most this past year. This graphic visualizes the top 10 trending Google searches worldwide in 2024.
The top trending searches were those with the highest increase in search interest compared to 2023.
The data and rankings comes from the Google Trends Year in Search 2024 roundup. Search data is from Jan. 1 to Nov. 23, 2024.
Below, we show the top 10 trending Google Searches from Jan. 1 to Nov. 23, 2024 and the time period where search interest for each topic peaked.
International sport events captured the world’s attention in 2024. Cricket led the trends, with the India-England Test series in early 2024 sparking major interest among fans of one of the world’s most-followed sports. India got the better of England, securing the country’s 17th consecutive Test series win on home soil.
Cricket surged in search popularity again during the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, held from June 1 to 29 and co-hosted by the West Indies and the U.S., and the first major ICC tournament hosted in the United States. The Indian and English cricket teams faced each other once again in a notable semi-final match, where India defeated England again.
Two major international football tournaments, the 2024 Euros, held in Germany, and Copa América, hosted in the United States, garnered substantial global interest in June and July, just before the Paris Olympics kicked off in July.
Princess of Wales Kate Middleton’s cancer diagnosis in March, the death of former One Direction member Liam Payne in October, and Donald Trump’s presidential election victory in November were among the most searched individual events of 2024.
Search interest in Trump also spiked following the assassination attempt on him during his campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13th.
To check out other regional Google Trends data, check out this graphic that visualizes the top Google searches in the U.S. in 2024.