A Year In Review: A Search History of People, Places and Things
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On January 1, the world ushered in the start of a new decade, with great expectations for the year ahead. While 2020 has proven to be significantly more challenging than expected, people around the globe have turned to their favorite place — the internet — to find answers, solace and guidance for what happens next.
Though the coronavirus has been on everyone’s mind (and understandably in their search history), this year has also seen communities rally together for social equality, the overcoming of several natural disasters and of course the debut of major pop-culture milestones, proving that not one, but many, topics gripped the world this past year.
GENERAL NEWS
Given the global impact of the pandemic, it’s no surprise that “COVID-19” surpassed all other keyword searches this year by a landslide, with almost 60 million average monthly searches since January 2020 and a peak high of 101 million searches in March.
20% of the most trending searches were related to the Black Lives Matters movement. The highest-trending keyword search in 2020 was for “George Floyd,” with inquiries skyrocketing by over 41.3 million % in May 2020.
Google Doodles contributed to over 25% of the top trending keyword list, with searches spiking significantly for illustrator Sir John Tenniel, Turkish astrophysicist Dilhan Eryurt, Olympic athlete Vicki Draves and civil rights activist Felicitaz Mendez after their respective Doodles were released in February, July, August and September.
Trending News Topics of 2020
Analyzing all articles of 2020 from BBC and CNN news sites, Semrush found several topics that gained major media traction. Unsurprisingly, coronavirus was a top news story this year, outpacing the second-most covered topic — the U.S. election — with 66% more average keyword mentions.
Major political events and elections constitute 40% of trending news topics, with another 30% focusing on tragedies that earned global attention. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon launch made the list as a positive news story, trending as the world looks beyond itself and towards a new era of space travel.
PEOPLE
With so many elections taking place in 2020 and citizens looking to world leaders for their response to the coronavirus, searches for individual politicians grew twice in comparison with 2019 year. Searches for “Kim Jong Un” peaked at over 83 million monthly searches in April, growing 1,049% compared to 2019, likely due to the rumor of his death following a surgery.
U.S. political figures made up 50% of the most-searched-for list. Searches for U.S. President Donald Trumpgrew by 60% while searches for the new President-elect, Joe Biden, skyrocketed by 9,545% this year, with a max monthly search volume of just over 35.5 million. Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris followed close behind, reaching a high of 30.4 million monthly searches in August 2020—a 1,561% increase from searches in July, after Biden announced her as his choice for running-mate—tying with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who received the same in April 2020.
Most trending celebrities in 2020
As the world turned digital in 2020 with pandemic restrictions in place, it makes sense that 25% of the top trending celebrities this year were TikTok stars: Addison Rae, Dixie D’Amelio and Charlie D’Amelio hold the top three fastest-trending spots.
Searches for “Grimes'' peaked at 13.6 million monthly searches in May with the announcement of her and Elon Musk’s first child, X Æ A-XII, seeing a 583% growth in overall popularity compared to 2019.
Actor Tom Hanks also trended this year with a 287% increase in searches year over year (YoY) as he was one of the first celebrities to share he had contracted COVID-19 in March, along with his wife.
ENTERTAINMENT
Most popular streaming services (VIDEO) in 2020
Netflix continues to be the peoples’ choice as the most popular streaming service this year—and by a landslide. Average monthly search volumes for “Netflix” were 671% higher than for Amazon Prime Video, the next highest streaming service with just under 18 million average monthly searches.
With the world enforcing social distancing, it’s no wonder that all streaming services saw a 72% increase in average search volume between February and March 2020. Disney+ saw the greatest amount of growth this year, spiking by 233% between February and March – this increase is likely the result of the platform’s launch in India with Disney+ Hotstar.
Most trending TV series in 2020
It’s also no surprise that more people are turning to their screens for entertainment while in isolation, but what are people watching? Measuring the greatest spike in the search volume, The Queen’s Gambit took the top spot for the highest trending TV series, with a 58% higher surge in average monthly searches than the second-trendiest series, Indian Matchmaking.
Solidifying its reign as the top streaming service, Netflix also dominated the trending series list with Netflix Originals making up 73% of the top shows' list.
Top music albums of 2020
Proving that a pandemic can’t stop the music, 50% of the top trending albums of the year were released after the world went into lockdown mid-March. J Balvin released Colores just two days prior to Colombia announcing new restrictions to help prevent the spread of coronavirus, giving his fans a new hit album to dance to at home that topped the search charts with a peak high of 1.5 million monthly searches in March.
Taylor Swift’s surprise album Folklore tied for second-highest monthly search volume with Selena Gomez’s Rare, reaching 1.2 million after its release in July. The Weeknd’s release, After Hours, was the third most searched album according to max monthly search volume in 2020.
Though their max search volume peaked at just over half a million, K-pop sensation BTS’s Map of the Soul 7saw the biggest average monthly search volume in 2020 that was almost 20% higher than the average monthly SV of the next leading release in the top list. This interest likely follows the group becoming the first K-pop artists to make the US Billboard Top 100 charts with the song “Dynamite” and receiving a Grammy nomination (the first-ever nomination for a K-pop group!).
Ariana Grande’s latest album Positions, is also set to see the major growth into the new year, seeing 550,000 monthly searches after its launch in October. BLACKPINK’s much-anticipated [THE ALBUM] has seen a steady growth alongside Positions with the maximum of 550,000 monthly searches.
Most trending video games in 2020
With outdoor adventures off the table due to pandemic precautions, the world also turned to video games to virtually escape their isolation. Among Us was the most popular game of the year by far, with a 173% higher max monthly search volume compared to the next leading game, Valorant, which was the second-highest trending game despite seeing an incredible 6,653% spike in searches between February and March 2020. Genshin Impact also tied for second alongside Valorant with a peak monthly search volume of 24.9 million.
All games except one were released in 2020 – Among Us was originally launched in 2018 but saw a major increase in popularity as a great social team game. 90% of all top trending games included (or plan to have, once released) online multiplayer gameplay, making them a perfect fit for those looking to stay connected while social distancing. Ghost of Tsushima went so far as adding a multiplayer expansion in October to connect players after its original release in July.
Top eCommerce websites of 2020
2020 was the year eCommerce popularity skyrocketed, with searches for “buy online” almost doubling in March 2020. As most consumers turned to digital shopping carts, some started shopping smarter with the help of technology, leveraging cyber-deals by timing appropriately with major discount days like Black Friday, or by using coupon or cash-back retailers like Rakuten, which saw a 19% increase in YoY monthly traffic.
Despite protests against the global retail website mammoth, online shoppers this year still value convenience, value and immediate delivery above all else — Amazon.com excelled as 2020’s top eCommerce website, with over 3.6 billion average monthly website’s visits (263% higher than eBay.com, the next leading site), and seeing a 24% increase in traffic compared to 2019.
What’s next?
When all else fails, ask Google. The uncertainty of 2020 has left the global population exhausted and eager for the end of pandemic restrictions, economic insecurity and social isolation. Monthly searches for “how long until 2020 ends?” went from zero to 201,000 in April 2020, possibly indicating that people were tired of the pandemic as soon as it began.
Some people even started a countdown, with monthly searches for “how many weeks left in 2020?”increasing from zero to 40,500 in April, steadily increasing to a peak of 74,000 in August— which is 83% higher compared YoY to “how many weeks left in 2019?”.
However, looking towards a clear future, global searches for “what will happen in 2021?” saw an average of 18,100 monthly searches this year. We hope for the best and will keep you posted about the latest data trends showing the most precise picture, because we all know – people are honest when they search.
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