The most popular Google searches of 2023 – including the songs we hummed the most
It proved to be a Barbie world in search this year
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Googlehas revealed thetop searches for 2023in various categories, which includes the most searched-for movies, TV shows, music and much more.
So, let’s start with the world of film, with the movie that was Googled the most beingBarbie– which just edged outOppenheimer(you might have guessed that’d follow in second, given the whole ‘Barbenheimer’ thing).
The third placed movie wasJawan, followed bySound of Freedom, and then taking fifth spot wasJohn Wick: Chapter 4, just keepingAvatar: The Way of Waterout of the top five.
Onto the TV shows, where we haveThe Last of Usas the most popular search, followed byWednesday– no surprises there given the stir created by the latter (which was excellent), and the game connection with the former (which was also excellent).
Following that we haveGinny & Georgia,One Piece, and in fifth positionKaleidoscope.
In the world of music – this is the bit that makes us feel really old – the most searched song wasアイドルorIdolby Yoasobi (the theme music from anime seriesOshi no Ko, apparently), thenTry That In A Small Townby Jason Aldean. That was followed in third byBzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53(Shakira and Bizarrap)Unholy(Sam Smith and Kim Petras) and thenCupid(Fifty Fifty) in fifth place.
As for the most searched musicians, they were topped by Shakira, then Jason Aldean (mirroring his placing in the song bracket), Joe Jonas, Smash Mouth in fourth (whose singer Steve Harwell sadly passed away this year), then Peppino di Capri.
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Check herefor the full lowdown on Google’s search term popularity during 2023, which covers all manner of topics, from news through sports stars to more niche picks like the top searches for museums.
Analysis: Our ever-changing searches
Also related to music searches we have Google’s rankings for the top songs used with its ‘hum to search’ functionality, two of which were, interestingly, by the Imagine Dragons –Boneswas number one, in fact, andBelievernumber five.Idolby Yoasobi also pitched in here (pun not intended) at number three.
And related to movies, the top actors were Jeremy Renner, then Jenna Ortega, with Ichikawa Ennosuke IV in third, then Danny Masterson, and Pedro Pascal in fifth (who should have been higher, surely?).
It’d be remiss if we didn’t also mention the top searches for games, with pole position held byHogwarts Legacy, ahead ofThe Last of Us.Connectionswas at number three, followed byBattlegrounds Mobile India, andStarfieldmanaged to secure fifth place – just beatingBaldur’s Gate 3into sixth place.
It’s also worth noting that Google revealed itsTrends Time Capsulewhich looks at top searches in the past. Using this, we can see that, for example,World of Warcraftwas the most searched game from 2005 all the way through to, and including, 2010.Minecraftheld the top spot for six consecutive years, also, from 2012 to 2017, but one-upped Warcraft as it returned to pole position in 2020-2021.
There’s some interesting material to explore here, for sure, and you’ll likely find these various rankings a bit of a time sink. We certainly did – now, what was the most popular sauce in 2002…
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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - ‘I Know What You Did Last Supper’ - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
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