One of Google Philippines’ annual traditions is “Year in Search”, a snapshot of the year’s key trends and interests derived from search activity data of Filipino users. This overview can be accessed by anyone on Google’s mini-site for Google Trends and users can check the most searched terms per individual country or the world in general.
Globally, the top trending searches include Wordle – coincidentally the top game-related search in the Philippines, the results of the cricket match between India versus England at the T20 World Cup 2022, the Ukraine-Russia conflict, as well as the recent passing of Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms.
At home, the 2022 national elections are at the top of the list of overall top trending searches made by Filipinos in 2022 after the highly contentious race between ex-VP Maria Leonor “Leni” Gerona Robredo and Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos Jr.
“Until now, we use the word ‘Google’ to look for a piece of information online. Google will always be an important part of our culture… Year in Search remains to be a highly-anticipated moment to cap off the year because it reflects the culture and the trends on what Filipinos searched for this year,” said Mervin Wenke, head for communications at Google Philippines.
Since 2022 is also the year that the lockdowns and mobility restrictions were significantly eased off, the Philippine government’s vaccine certificate request website VaxCertPH was top of the mind by local users, followed by precinct finder, Wordle, All of Us Are Dead, Warriors vs Celtics, Ukraine, Encanto, Axie Infinity, and Jeffrey Dahmer.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) games remain at the top of sports-related searches made by Filipinos, specifically with matches involving the Golden State Warriors against the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks, the match pitting Miami Heat versus the Boston Celtics, current NBA standings of each team for contention, Memphis Grizzlies versus the Golden State Warriors, game schedules for the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), NBA playoffs, NBA drafts for 2022, and professional volleyball athlete Deanna Wong.
With more and more Filipinos turning to online streaming like Netflix for content, the majority of the most-searched TV shows and series in the Philippines can be watched on its platform. All of Us Are Dead is followed by Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Business Proposal, Alchemy of Souls, Euphoria, Twenty-Five Twenty-One, Big Mouth, Manifest, Our Beloved Summer, and the Summer I Turned Pretty.
Meanwhile, blockbuster films are making a comeback to the big screen led by Disney’s Encanto, the horror film Incantation, a Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movie called Eternals, Purple Hearts, MCU comic book adaptations Thor: Love and Thunder and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the lighthearted animation Turning Red, DC’s Black Adam, More Than Blue, and another MCU production Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Lin Manuel Miranda’s song from Disney’s Encanto entitled ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ topped the Google charts as the most searched song lyrics in the Philippines, followed by the trending sound on TikTok ‘Sun and Moon’, Mahika, Babalik Sa’yo, Easy On Me, Repeat, Favorite Girl, Pano, Angel Baby, and Paraluman.
While it’s a big year for console gamers with the release of games like Elden Ring and Bayonetta 3, the most searched game-related title is a Web-based puzzle game called Wordle. It was followed by NFT-based Axie Infinity, Roblox cheat tool Arceus X, Razer Gold virtual credits, Genshin Impact’s rival Tower of Fantasy, top-up platform Jollymax, free-to-play MMOARPG Lost Ark, Anime Adventure codes, cross-platform fantasy game Flyff Universe, and K-Fantasy title MIR4.
Among the list of male personalities, basketball player and recently debuted as an actor in an MMFF film Ricci Rivero leads the pack, followed Johnny Depp who was embroiled in a celebrity scandal surrounding his defamation trial versus ex-wife Amber Heard, and “All of Us Are Dead” star actor Park Solomon.
The list continues with Tyler Poarch, comedian Chris Rock, professional basketball athlete Juancho Hernangomez, Canadian actor Ahn Hyo-seop, Utah Jazz’ Jordan Clarkson, Hollywood actor Andrew Garfield, and Maroon 5 lead vocalist Adam Levine.
“For Google, we’d like to call this as the year of reemergence, we’re accelerating into a post-pandemic era, reimagining ourselves and the world around us. After two years of uncertainty and self-reflection, we’re now experiencing new possibilities again,” Wenke concluded.
