Our 2022 Digital Trend Round-Up: What Data Told Us

Somehow… just somehow, it’s already 2023.

What better activity to do to avoid thinking about those New Year’s Resolutions you’re definitely (not) going to stick to, than looking back on the year just gone?

We’ve reviewed 2022 to look at some of the most talked about (and searched for) topics, and the juicy digi-data behind them – because, you know, we kinda like data.

Some of the standout points include:

• Wordle was the most popular procrastination activity, with a yearly average of over 47.67 million searches.
• ‍Your most searched person online was Johnny Depp with around 48.2 million searches.
• A lot of tennis players made it into top-searched athletes, with Djokovic as number one.
• You guys were either loving, streaming, or not fully understanding 2022’s release of Thor.
• Buckingham Palace was the top cultural landmark to be searched for on Google Maps.

It’s been an eventful year, so let’s get started.

Taking a Depp dive into 2022

Google named Johnny Depp as both the most searched person and actor of the past year, and it was certainly a big topic of conversation for a lot of people. Unfortunately, we’re not so sure it was his acting that got him there.

Whoever’s side you were on in the infamous Amber Heard and Johnny Depp trial, it was certainly something on people’s minds and in their search engines, with both names featuring in Google’s Year In Search and the data to prove it.

The trial spanned across April and June, but the time around the verdict grabbed the most attention, as you can see:

With live streaming of the verdict itself, along with news and influencer content, June traffic picked up massively, with the five main sources of content coming from news publications, Wikipedia, and YouTube.

Using our Keyword Analysis, we can see that ‘johnny depp’ had a 1-year monthly search visit average of 48.35 million; only slightly more than the 44.77 million for ‘amber heard’.

The key search terms you guys were typing in? Pretty similar, although maybe more of an interest into Amber’s personal life of previous exes and, well… extra personal life.

Celeb gossip > world politics? ‍‍‍

Along with Depp and Heard, Will Smith and Chris Rock came out on top as a digital trend in 2022.

Maybe a bit of a slap in the face for Chris Rock…

In that mix of Hollywood stars and comedians, you’ll also find Vladimir Putin. On a global basis, the President of Russia has received a lot of intrigue via Google – about who he is as a person, and his intentions with Ukraine.

Receiving a 1-year monthly average of 7.067 million search visits, the keyword traffic was all organic, as timely news usually is.

Some of the top domains gaining traffic around the top of Putin in 2022 included:

• Wikipedia
• YouTube
• CNN
• Libero Quotidiano (Italy)
• Il Giornale (Italy)

For more on this, check this out: Nuclear War Anxieties Influence Search and Web Traffic

A royal farewell

Speaking of country leaders – one thing that the world couldn’t ignore was the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. And you can see this from her being one of the most-searched-for news topics and people in 2022, and the huge rise in traffic for related searches in September:

Throughout the year before her death, her name was predominantly leading to her Wikipedia page (or similar) where you’ll find out more about herself, her family, and her history.

With her death and funeral happening within a few weeks in September 2022, the traffic trends below come as no surprise. With a pick-up in news platforms and YouTube – which live-streamed the funeral – the traffic volume for Elizabeth II saw a much bigger incline than its usual months of Wikipedia searches.

A global health check-up

Another next big news topic underneath the passing of the queen and Ukraine was monkeypox.

Taking the unfortunate reign from COVID-19 as a highly Googled illness in the news for 2020 and 2021, monkeypox is a threatening illness that no one knew much about at all before this year.

How do we know that? For one, our Keyword Generator makes it pretty clear with these key search terms related to monkeypox, pulled from the past year:

And as you can see from the Yearly trend section, the search terms peaked mid-year when the outbreak began. Here’s a closer look:

A year of controversy

It’s 2022, and we know people aren’t shy of a controversial opinion (or ten) these days. Two people that spring to mind?

Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

Two disruptors who seem to have the desire to be the center of attention, have had a lot of airtime. Good or bad, there’s been airtime.

But in the battle for attention, who grabbed yours the most this year? Let’s make the most of our keyword comparison feature to see what’s up:

One seems to have taken a bit of a hit in terms of relevance for 2022 (and no, we had no say on the color choices).

But saying that, Trump has kept it pretty steady this year, despite leaving office in 2021. That little orange bump upwards that you can see in November in the chart below? Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in the 2024 election. We’ll check back in 2023 and 2024 to see how that goes.

On the other hand, Elon Musk has been very prominent in 2022 news – with some big, big uplifts in search traffic for his name in April, July, October, and November. With such a notable year behind him, here are some highlights:

• April: Musk strikes a deal to take over Twitter for $44 billion.
• May: Musk tells the world that his Twitter deal is on hold via Tweet, and gains a lot of traction through Twitter in May as a result (see below).
• June: Despite a lot of workers still working from home or in a hybrid model, Musk told his employees to return to the office full-time… or resign.
• July: That $44 billion Twitter deal? He’s done with it – so consider it terminated.
• August: Musk sells 7.92 million shares in Tesla, totaling $6.88 billion.
• September: Text messages between Musk and his closest confidants about his bid to buy Twitter were revealed in court, showing he wasn’t quite over it when he said he was.
• October: That Twitter deal (the one we keep mentioning) was actually concluded after Musk first initiated its acquisition in April – with some ups and downs along the way.
• November: The Twitter takeover commences and the reorganization of the company begins.
• December: Elon Musk was named the Most Exhausting Person of 2022.

Read More: 200,000+ Twitter Quitters in Weekend Following Musk Takeover (But Even More New Users)

From controversial to fantastical

Let’s take a step back from the – often unbelievable – reality of the world today, and jump into the part-fantasy, part-based on true stories (but embellished for your entertainment) world of Netflix and other streaming platforms.

What have you all been watching?

Let’s start with an apparent favorite of all you fantasy fans, House of the Dragon – which took second place in Google’s most searched TV shows, after Euphoria.

As a prequel to Game of Thrones, we knew it was going to have a fair few loyal supporters. With the first episode hitting your screens on 21st August, House of the Dragon searches saw a big lift – and it stayed pretty high too.

Now, we can compare this to Rings of Power – based on the well-known Lord of the Rings – which had its first episode aired just a month later, on 1st September.

Conclusion? We’ve got a lot more GOT fans out there – and they’re more loyal too. Or, no one understands what’s going on so they are constantly IMBDing House of the Dragon.

Read More: House of the Dragon, Rings of Power and How Exclusives Drive Streaming Sign-ups

The data suggest a bit of both:

And the top websites these searches are landing on? TV streaming services and IMBD – just call me Mystic Meg.

What else were people watching? Or, what should be on your to-watch list? The other top shows around the world in Google’s Year in Search were:

• Euphoria
• Moon Knight
• The Watcher
• Inventing Anna
• Dahmer
• The Boys
• All of Us Are Dead
• Sandman
• Heartstopper

The calm before the score ⚽

Something else people were watching a lot of in 2022? Soccer, football, the beautiful game… whatever you call it. You were watching it.

For one (big one), there was the World Cup in Qatar.

It was an event that caused quite a commotion, not only down to the game itself. If anything, the World Cup amplified the inherent issues to people across the globe. As you can see, with the increase in mentions of the specific event in a more generic keyword search:

Let’s take a closer look at two soccer superstars that we know you’ve all heard of.

Hello, Cristiano Ronaldo, and hello, Lionel Messi.

Not only are they two world-renowned players, but there is also a world-renowned rivalry between them – even if it’s only encouraged by the media and the fans. But whose name is getting plugged into your search engines more?

Like the shoestrings on their boots, it’s a pretty tight game between Ronaldo and Messi in terms of internet searches, especially during the run-up and start of the World Cup in November. Despite the neck-on-neck numbers for November, Messi soared pretty high at the end of the year – and we’re sure that Argentinian win had a lot to say for it.

Many were happy, but some were not. We’ll leave this here… (cough cough, look at the Yearly trend, cough cough).

Can they both ‘keepy-uppy’ the fame for 2023? Stay tuned for next year’s post.

Want more World Cup 2022 stats? Here you go:

• World Cup 2022 Search Trends Shows Event Driving E-Commerce Revenues
• Sports Betting Should Benefit From World Cup 2022
• World Cup 2022 Interest Building

Like the stats you see?

Go far beyond 2022, and go far beyond the ‘general’ trends around the world to get the data and insights relevant to YOU.

Whether you’re working on your marketing plan for the year ahead, focusing on key events across 2023, or you just want some key insights into your target audience and what they’re search habits are, Similarweb can help.

With data as fresh as the office fruit bowl on a Monday (or even as fresh as those New Year’s resolutions you’ve just made), Similarweb provides you with all the goods for your keyword research and content ideation.

Want to see exactly how it can work for you and your business? Get in touch today.