Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.
Taylor Swift wasn't one of Google's top trending musicians of 2024. Here's why
- Google has released its Year in Search 2024 results.
- The results are split into categories and by region, with the top search trends globally being dominated by sporting events.
- These are the top trending searches in terms of traffic spikes compared to last year rather than the most searched terms overall.
Such is the nature of the information age that if a time traveler arrived in December 2024 and wanted to get an idea of the key cultural events of the past 12 months, checking out the top trending searches of the year would be a good place to start. Google just released its Year in Search 2024 to give you that picture, and the results are pretty interesting.
To understand why certain people and events are on these lists, it’s important to make clear that these are the top trending searches of the year, which is very different from the most searched results. Top trending means queries that had a high spike in traffic over a sustained period this year, compared with the general traffic of 2023. This context explains a lot.
For example, when you look at the top trending musicians globally, Taylor Swift isn’t even in the top 10. This looks odd at first glance since she is undoubtedly one of the most popular artists in the world, but the point is that she was equally search-worthy in 2023. On the flip side, Swift’s opening act on the Eras Tour, Sabrina Carpenter, is in fourth spot on that list. She was known in 2023 but has been further propelled to stardom this year by the success of her song Espresso. That got her trending, and the single is in fifth place on the global trending searches for Songs this year.
Let’s look at the top five trending global searches of the year, which further illustrate this point. They are:
- Copa America
- UEFA European Championship
- ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
- India vs England
- Liam Payne
Aside from the sudden and tragic death of former One Direction singer Liam Payne, the other four entries are sports-related, specifically soccer and cricket. Crucially, though, they’re all events on the sporting calendar that don’t occur every year, which is why they spiked in the Google search trends and made the Year in Search 2024 list. Olympic Games Paris 2024 is a few places further down that list, as are Donald Trump and iPhone 16.
With that picture painted, many other entrants in the various categories make much more sense. Trump, Kamala Harris, and Joe Biden were all in the global trending searches for People, while Mike Tyson and Jake Paul both appear in the top five trending searches for Athletes. Inside Out 2 beat Deadpool & Wolverine to the top spot in the Movies category, with Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us topping the Songs list.
British thriller Baby Reindeer was the top trending search in the TV Shows category, ahead of the highly acclaimed adaptation of Fallout from Amazon Prime Video. Inter Miami CF took the third spot on the Sports Teams trending searches list, which shows the continuing allure of Lionel Messi.
To take a look at the categories for yourself, both global and by region, you can check out the Year in Search 2024 page.