According to Google’s 2024 search recap, the presidential election, summer Olympics and New York Times games dominated people’s top searches nationwide.
See the 2024 holiday tree inside Wisconsin’s state Capitol in Madison
See the 2024 holiday tree inside Wisconsin’s state Capitol in Madison.
There are many ways to recap a year but, in the smartphone age, perhaps one of the most telling is what had people pulling out their phones and Googling.
According to Google’s 2024 search recap, the presidential election, Summer Olympics and New York Times games dominated people’s searches nationwide. In Wisconsin, the searches largely followed national trends — aside from a few key topics that were more localized.
What were the top Google searches nationwide in 2024?
- Election
- Donald Trump
- Connections
- New York Yankees
- Kamala Harris
Three of the five refer to the presidential election, while “Connections” is presumably a reference to the New York Times daily puzzle. Searches for the New York Yankees spiked significantly during the team’s 2024 World Series appearance against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
What were the top Google searches in Wisconsin in the past year?
Here are the top five “rising” searches in Wisconsin over the past year, according to Google Trends. Rising searches are terms that saw the biggest increase in search frequency over the past year. This data covers the past 12 months, so technically it starts a little before Jan. 1, 2024.
“Strands,” which took the top spot, is yet another New York Times daily game.
- Strands
- Kamala Harris
- Eric Hovde
- Election results
- Connections hint
Though familiar themes of word puzzles and the presidential election persist in Wisconsin searches, the “Eric Hovde” top search is unique to the state. Hovde, a Republican, lost the U.S. Senate race to Sen. Tammy Baldwin last month and made several false claims about absentee ballots before he eventually conceded.
Other notable terms amid the rising searches were “Timberwolves,” presumably referring to the Minnesota Timberwolves (#11 most searched in Wisconsin); “Jordan Love” (#16); and “Packers game” (#23).
Among the most popular search queries overall, the top five in Wisconsin were fairly generic:
- Weather
- Amazon
- YouTube
- News
“Brewers” and “Packers,” meanwhile, were the 7th and 8th most-searched terms statewide. Other Wisconsin-specific terms included “Bucks” (#14); “Menards” (#17); and “ccap,” the state’s database for court records (#19).
Who were the most-searched people in 2024?
Across the U.S., the presidential election also influenced the list of most-searched people. Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, JD Vance and Joe Biden were the top-searched, in that order. Catherine, Princess of Wales — formerly Kate Middleton — was in fifth place, with searches about her skyrocketing after she announced her cancer diagnosis in March.
Meanwhile, the most-searched actors were Katt Williams, Jacob Elordi, Glen Powell, Jeremy Allen White and Shane Gillis.
Among athletes, Mike Tyson, Imane Khelif, Simone Biles, Scottie Scheffler and Jake Paul clinched top spots. Khelif, Biles and Scheffler all took home gold medals in the 2024 Summer Olympics, while Tyson and Paul recently faced off in a highly publicized Netflix boxing match.
What were the most-searched events, movies, music in 2024?
The most-searched news events in 2024 were the fall U.S. election, Copa América, the Summer Olympics, Hurricane Milton and the Paralympics, according to Google.
The most-searched movies were “Inside Out 2,” “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” “It Ends With Us,” “Saltburn” and “Dune: Part Two.” Among TV shows, “Griselda,” “Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” and “Baby Reindeer” took the top spots.
Of the top-searched songs, three of five were by Kendrick Lamar: “Not Like Us,” “meet the grahams” and “Euphoria” took first, second and fourth place, respectively. Meanwhile, KSI’s “Thick Of It” and Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” covered by Luke Combs, were third and fifth place.
The top-searched music tours were Charli XCX and Troye Sivan’s “Sweat” tour, Sabrina Carpenter’s “Short n’ Sweet” tour, and Future and Metro Boomin’s “We Trust You Tour.”