Google’s Top Trending Searches of 2023, and Other Year-in-Review Lists

Dec 20, 2023 • Search

This has been a turbulent year, and that’s reflected in Google’s top trending searches of 2023. The latest annual list reveals that war, shootings, and natural disasters dominated the top trending news searches of the year, both globally and in the US.

[As a reminder: Top trending searches do not refer to the most volume, but rather those with the highest spikes this year in comparison to 2022.]

Unlike in years past, Google hasn’t released a list of the top trending searches overall. But within the top trending news section, it’s a litany of disasters, both natural and man-made. The War in Israel and Gaza leads the top trending news searches of the year both globally and in the US, and various other items are shared between the two lists. For example, three hurricanes (Hilary, Idealia, and Lee) populate both lists, as do two shootings (Maine, and Nashville).

Within the US, the Maui fire and the Canada wildfires took the 8th and 10th spots, while globally the Turkey earthquake was the third-most trending news search, and the war in Sudan the 10th-most. The only positive news item to make one of the lists was Chandrayaan-3, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s lunar mission, which was in the 9th spot in the global list.

Below is a brief selection of top-5 trending search lists from around the world and in the US.