Have you survived a McDonald’s Grimace shake, made a girl dinner or thought about the Roman Empire (it’s a TikTok trend) this year? Those were among the most Googled topics nationally this year, according to Google’s year in search data released Monday.
Google’s list highlighted top U.S. searches for news events, which included Canadian wildfires (No. 10), Bryan Kohberger’s murder trial in Idaho (No. 9), Maui fires (No. 8) and the doomed submersible owned by Everett-based OceanGate Expeditions (No. 2). Mass shootings in Nashville and Maine, a trio of hurricanes (Lee, Idalia and Hilary) and the Israel-Hamas war (No. 1) were also among the most searched news events nationally.
The search engine also revealed the most searched “vs.” matchups in the Seattle area this year with the tech billionaire “cage match” between Elon Musk vs. Mark Zuckerberg that hasn’t happened taking the No. 2 spot behind the October boxing match between Dillon Danis vs. Logan Paul (No. 1).
Here are a few of Seattle’s most searched items.
Most popular Seattle ‘near me’ searches
“Air quality near me” was the most popular Seattle-area Google search last year as we ran 2022 headlines on Seattle air quality among the worst in the world. While “air quality near me” remains a popular Google search, it fell to the No. 3 spot this year as we offered guidance to East Coast neighbors affected by Canadian wildfire smoke.
Searches for retail establishments including farmer markets (No. 5), smoke shops (No. 4) and pawn shops (No. 1) topped this year’s local searches. “Haircuts near me” was the No. 2 search, according to Google, as a series of concerts gave us an excuse to deck out in friendship bracelets and silver.
For comparison, the top Seattle “near me” searches of 2022 included remote jobs (No. 5), cheapest gas (No. 4), gas prices (No. 3), drug stores (No. 2) and air quality (No. 1).
Most searched Seattle concerts
This was a record-breaking year for music fan attendance at Lumen Field. Swifties set off a seismometer in July during a series of back-to-back sold out Seattle shows, setting an attendance record of more than 72,000 on one night. Then Ed Sheeran broke Taylor Swift’s Lumen Field attendance record in late August. Beyoncé spent part of her birthday month in Seattle with 11-year-old daughter Blue Ivy and a BeyHive of 57,000 concert fans. Then let’s not forget not one, but two concert movies — including one that will hit streaming this week.
But what were Seattle’s most Googled concerts of the year?
Time magazine’s person of the year held that No. 1 search spot with her Eras Tour, which is returning to the Pacific Northwest in 2024. This was followed by Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour (No. 2), Drake’s It’s All A Blur stop at Climate Pledge (No. 3), Madonna’s postponed Celebration tour (No. 4) and Ed Sheeran’s Mathematics tour (No. 5).
Swift also has topped Seattle’s Spotify Wrapped lists for at least two years in a row and holds the distinction of being Google’s most searched songwriter of all time.
Most searched TV shows in Seattle area
The most searched TV show nationally and locally has a Pacific Northwest tie-in. HBO Max’s post-apocalyptic zombie show “The Last of Us,” which was filmed in Vancouver and features Seattle locations in its video game source material, took the No. 1 spot. Seattle-area audiences also searched for Netflix’s “Beef” (No. 2), which columnist Naomi Ishisaka describes as “a groundbreaking moment for Asian American representation in media.” Apple TV+’s “Shrinking” (No. 3), ABC’s “The Golden Bachelor” (No. 4) and Netflix’s “The Night Agent” (No. 5) were also among the most searched TV shows locally.
Nationally, most searched shows of the year include Netflix’s “Ginny & Georgia” (No. 2), Netflix’s “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” (No. 3), Amazon Prime’s “Daisy Jones & The Six” (No. 4) and Netflix’s “Wednesday” (No. 5).
The top TV shows of 2022 included “House of the Dragon,” “Inventing Anna,” “The Watcher,” “Stranger Things” and “Euphoria.”
