Google’s 2018 recap reveals the top-trending search terms, including the Marvel Studios movie Black Panther and deceased pop culture icon Stan Lee. 2018 has been a wild year for America, and for pop culture as a whole. As usual, some films wowed while others flopped, some TV shows captivated while others bored, and as it’s been for most of the decade, comic book-based projects dominated the mainstream in a way no one would’ve imagined even two decades ago. All the while, the world of politics continued to further intrude on entertainment, thanks to the ongoing fascination with celebrity president Donald Trump.
As it does every year, Google has compiled its list of top-trending search terms for 2018, although the year is admittedly not quite over yet. Important to note is that “top-trending” doesn’t simply refer to search queries made the most, as those often encompass more general terms that never really fluctuate. Instead, top-trending measures the increase in search activity for a name or phrase in 2018 when compared to 2017’s search frequency.
Google has created separate top-trending lists for the entire world and for most individual countries, but to simplify things, the results below are based on data for U.S. users. America isn’t necessarily more important than anywhere else, but it’s the primary market for both Google and Hollywood, so it seems like a logical place to focus on. To begin, Black Panther topped the list of top-trending movies, and was also the only movie to appear on the list of top-trending overall searches. Also making the overall list is Stan Lee, likely sparked by his sad passing last month, as he also appears on the list of top-trending deceased persons. Included below for convenience are the full lists of movies and TV shows.
Looking more specifically at the list of top-trending movies, superheroes continued to rule the day overall, claiming the top four spots. Directly under Black Panther can be found Incredibles 2, Deadpool 2, and Avengers: Infinity War, and further down the list is Venom at #8. Perhaps most surprising there is that Black Panther and Deadpool 2 both ranked higher than Infinity War, arguably the biggest superhero film in history. Based on Google’s methodology for this ranking, that could likely be due to lots of people already searching for Infinity War in 2017, while Black Panther and Deadpool 2 didn’t become hot topics until the actual films released in 2018.
MOVIES
Black Panther
Incredibles 2
Deadpool 2
Avengers: Infinity War
A Quiet Place
A Star Is Born
Bohemian Rhapsody
Venom
Hereditary
The Nun
TV SHOWS
Roseanne
Altered Carbon
The Haunting of Hill House
American Idol
Lost in Space
Cobra Kai
Castle Rock
Westworld
Insatiable
On My Block
On the TV side of things, Roseanne topped the list, which isn’t at all surprising when one considers that the revival’s acclaimed, highly-rated run and its star’s public downfall both happened over the course of 2018. More surprising is Netflix’s Altered Carbon ranking at #2, above fall phenomenon The Haunting of Hill House. Interestingly, all but three of Google’s top-trending TV shows are streaming originals, further illustrating the shift away from traditional TV. In other miscellaneous notes, the World Cup was the top-trending overall search of 2018, with “election results” coming in below searches for Mac Miller and Demi Lovato. Additionally, YouTube personality Logan Paul was the top-trending actor, beating out huge stars like Sylvester Stallone, Michael B. Jordan, and Bradley Cooper. Of course, not everyone on the list is there for positive reasons, as Bill Cosby, Allison Mack, and Roseanne Barr also appear.
More: Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige Remembers His Last Meeting With Stan Lee
Source: Google
