Coronavirus, Chadwick Boseman Among Google's Top Trending 2020 Searches

Tech giant Google has released the highly-anticipated annual Year in Search list, and it hardly comes as a surprise that Google’s top trending searches for the year 2020 were dominated by queries for coronavirus amid the ongoing global health crisis.

The list focused on the top trending searches from Jan. 1 - Dec. 2 and reflected the terms that had the highest spike in traffic in 2020.

Coronavirus, also known as SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19, was first identified amid an outbreak of respiratory disease cases in Wuhan, China. The outbreak was reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) on Dec. 31, 2019, and it was later declared a public emergency in January 2020.

However, the cases started to surge all around the world, and WHO was forced to declare it a “pandemic” on March 11.

As of late, the world has witnessed more than 69 million cases and 1.57 million deaths due to the life-threatening illness. The U.S. is the worst-affected nation with over 15 million confirmed infections and 296,698 deaths.

Meanwhile, Chadwick Boseman, Naya Rivera, and Kobe Bryant were among the top-searched individuals in memoriam this year. Boseman died at the age of 43 due to colon cancer while Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna died in a helicopter crash in California, earlier this year.

Rivera, known for her role on the hit TV series “Glee,” passed away in July 2020 after drowning at Lake Piru, California.

In Films, Bong Joon Ho’s Oscar-winning “Parasite” topped the list while Sam Mendes’ war-epic movie “1917” secured the second spot. Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther,” Cathy Yan’s “Birds Of Prey,” and Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” were also among the top-searched movie titles.

Surprisingly, Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 movie “Contagion” nabbed the fifth position on the list. The movie tells the story of a life-threatening disease that has overtaken the entire world and was declared a pandemic. The symptoms shown in the movie had a striking similarity to what people feel while experiencing COVID-19.

On the Television side, it was “Tiger King” that nabbed the numero uno position while “Money Heist,” “Cobra Kai,” and “The Umbrella Academy” were some of the shows that also featured on the list.

Tom Hanks led Google's top-trending global searches for actors, followed by Joaquin Phoenix, Indian superstar Amitabh Bachchan, Ricky Gervais, and Jada Pinkett Smith.

In Music, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s blockbuster hit song “WAP” was the top-trending lyrics search. BTS’s first-ever song in the English language, “Dynamite,” was also present on the list.

President-elect Joe Biden was the top-searched person in 2020 while the upcoming vice-president Kamala Harris claimed the fourth position.

Here’s the list of Google’s top trending global searches in 2020:

Overall Searches

1. Coronavirus
2. Election Results
3. Kobe Bryant
4. Zoom
5. IPL
6. India vs New Zealand
7. Coronavirus update
8. Coronavirus symptoms
9. Joe Biden
10. Google Classroom

Movies

1. “Parasite” – Bong Joon Ho
2. “1917” – Sam Mendes
3. “Black Panther” – Ryan Coogler
4. “365 Dni” – Barbara Biolowas, Tomasz Mandes
5. “Contagion” – Steven Soderbergh
6. “Tenet” – Christopher Nolan
7. “Enola Holmes” – Harry Bradbeer
8. “Birds Of Prey” – Cathy Yan
9. “Mulan” – Niki Caro
10. “Jojo Rabbit” – Taika Waititi

Television

1. “Tiger King”
2. “Big Brother Brasil”
3. “Money Heist”
4. “Cobra Kai”
5. “The Umbrella Academy”
6. “Emily In Paris”
7. “Ozark”
8. “The Queen’s Gambit”
9. “Outer Banks”
10. “Locke & Key”

Actors

1. Tom Hanks
2. Joaquin Phoenix
3. Amitabh Bachchan
4. Ricky Gervais
5. Jada Pinkett Smith
6. Justin Hartley
7. Lea Michele
8. Eleazar Gomez
9. Ansel Elgort
10. Mihail Efremov