In a year of political turmoil and pop culture, "Charlie Kirk" and "KPop Demon Hunters" shaped Google's top searches in the U.S. for 2025, according to their newly released report that highlights the queries for the top internet search engine.
Also among the top five trending searches were "Labubus," "iPhone 17" and the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act."
Although the assassination of Kirk, a 31-year-old right-wing political influencer and co-founder of Turning Point USA, happened in September, it centered a lot of the top searches for the year overall.
RELATED STORY | CBS News hosting prime-time 'town hall' with Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk
Kirk was the top search related to an individual's passing, followed by actor Gene Hackman, legendary musician Ozzy Osbourne, chef and TV host Anne Burrell and award-winning actor Diane Keaton.
The most searched people of 2025 included New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, Kirk shooting suspect Tyler Robinson, singer d4vd, Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, and Pope Leo XIV. Rapper Kendrick Lamar and late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel also made the list when looking at global top searches.
The top trending news searches on Google for the year included "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," "Government shutdown," "Charlie Kirk assassination," "Tariffs," and "No Kings protest" — all related to the Trump administration in one way or another.
RELATED STORY | Spotify Wrapped is here. Here's who topped the charts
"Charlie Kirk assassination" was also the top Google search on a global scale, followed by searches for "Iran," "US Government Shutdown," "New Pope chosen," and "LA Fires."
Google said the top-searched actors for 2025 were Pedro Pascal, Malachi Barton, Walton Goggins, Pamela Anderson and Charlie Sheen.
As for movies, people were most interested in looking up Netflix's smash hit "KPop Demon Hunters," followed by "Sinners," "The Minecraft Movie," "Happy Gilmore 2," and Marvel's "Thunderbolts."
The top searched TV shows on Google this year were "The Hunting Wives," "The White Lotus," "The Pitt," "The Summer I Turned Pretty," "Squid Game."
Searches for internet trends were dominated by people's interest in artificial intelligence. Those searches included "AI action figure," "AI Barbie," "Holy airball," "AI Ghostface," and "AI Polaroid."
Top searched athletes included Shedeur Sanders, Terence Crawford, Cooper Flagg, Cam Skattebo and Micah Parsons.
As for food, people in the U.S. searched for "Hot honey cottage cheese sweet potato beef bowl," "Dumpling bake," "Cabbage boil," "Iceberg lettuce salad," and "Carrot salad."
Boston, Seattle, Tokyo, New York and Prague were the most searched cities by users in the U.S.
