Google has released its annual Year in Search results for 2025. While AI slop continues to reduce the quality of Google’s searches (and everything else online), it’s still an interesting look at what’s popular.
Searches
Globally
- Gemini
- India vs. England
- Charlie Kirk
- Club World Cup
- India vs. Australia
- DeepSeek
- Asia Cup
- Iran
- iPhone 17
- Pakistan and India
United States
- Charlie Kirk
- KPop Demon Hunters
- Labubu
- iPhone 17
- One Big Beautiful Bill Act
- Zohran Mamdani
- DeepSeek
- Government shutdown
- FIFA World Cup
- Tariffs
The rest of the world’s searches differ greatly from those of the United States. Most of the results are, like in previous years, about soccer (per being the world’s most popular sport) or cricket (likely per India’s large population).
Looking at non-sports results globally, Gemini (Google’s AI chatbot) is the most popular result. It’s undetermined whether that’s from people actively seeking to use/learn Gemini or just want to turn it off. At #3 is Charlie Kirk, the American far-right figure who was assassinated in September. At #6 is DeepSeek, another AI related thing—specifically Chinese AI tech released in January that proposed to make generative AI cheaper than the American companies’ efforts. (This briefly sent US AI stocks in a spin, before bouncing back—yes, I’m still waiting for the AI bubble to burst.) At #9 is the newest iPhone, the iPhone 17.
Switching to US search results, the list is pretty much a summary of 2025, for better or (mostly) worse. Charlie Kirk is the #1 search result; other news/political results are #5 (a regressive Trump-backed budget bill, complete with Trump’s simplistic grade-schooler vocabulary as its name), #6 (New York City’s newly elected mayor; Mamdani is a thirtysomething Democratic Socialist), #8 (the fall government shutdown) and #10 (Trump’s tariff nonsense).
Elsewhere in US results, #2 is this year’s most popular animated film, “KPop Demon Hunters.” #3 is the year’s biggest toy fad, Labubus. At #9 is the World Cup, which is being held in the US in 2026. I assume there’ll still be tourists coming for the World Cup, but imagine it won’t make up for the overall slump in tourism to the US (one guess why).
Top 10 movies
Globally
- Anora
- Superman
- Minecraft Movie
- Thunderbolts*
- Sinners
- Happy Gilmore 2
- Final Destination: Bloodlines
- Weapons
- 28 Years Later
- Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
United States
- KPop Demon Hunters
- Sinners
- The Minecraft Movie
- Happy Gilmore 2
- Thunderbolts*
- F1
- Jurassic World Rebirth
- Final Destination: Bloodlines
- Weapons
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps
The top global search result is “Anora,” this year’s best picture Oscar winner. I notice at #2 globally (but oddly not even ranking on the US list) is “Superman,” this year’s successful film about the Man of Steel. At #5 is “Sinners,” which seems like a welcome result, per the “films starring Black people don’t do well overseas” canard.
On the American side of things, #1 is “KPop Demon Hunters,” which oddly didn’t appear on the global list. The “F1” movie appears at #6, while the Fantastic Four’s film is at #10.
Top 10 TV shows
Globally
- Monster: The Ed Gein Story
- Squid Game 3
- Adolescence
- Severance
- The Summer I Turned Pretty
- White Lotus
- Pluribus
- American Primeval
- Alien: Earth
- Landman
United States
- The Hunting Wives
- The White Lotus
- The Pitt
- The Summer I Turned Pretty
- Squid Game
- Severance
- MobLand
- Adolescence
- Andor
- IT: Welcome to Derry
The most searched entry globally is a season of a Netflix true crime documentary series about a convicted murderer. Not much surprise the top entry is a Netflix series, with Netflix being the world’s most popular streaming service. Looking at the other global entries: four of them are on Netflix; two are on Apple TV; and one each are on Paramount+, Amazon Prime Video, HBO/HBO Max, and Disney+/Hulu.
Stateside, the most popular show is “The Hunting Wives,” a drama on (you guessed it) Netflix. Checking, three of the 10 shows are on Netflix, tied with three also on HBO/HBO Max (reflecting HBO’s popularity in the US). One each is on Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Paramount.
No, I’ve not seen any of these shows; most of them don’t strike my interest, and/or are on a service I don’t get.
Other
On the global books list, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” appears in the #10 spot. Otherwise, nothing resembling comics, graphic novels, or manga as far as I can tell appear in the global or US search rankings.
Image: “Google Sign” by drewtarvin is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (Flickr / cropped from original)
