Puzzle game Wordle, the World Cup and the late Queen have been revealed as the top trending search topics in the UK during 2022. Google’s annual Year in Search statistics showed that Ukraine and searches for lateral flow tests were also in the top five trending UK searches of the year.
The top 10 searches list in the UK also included Russia, Wordle alternative Quordle, and Johnny Depp. The puzzle game which asks people to guess a five-letter word each day rose to prominence at the start of the year and has since been bought by the New York Times as well as spawned a number of unofficial spin-offs.
Google builds its lists by identifying the top trending search queries, which are searches that have a high spike in traffic over a sustained period compared to last year. The death of the Queen was the top trending news event of the year, ahead of searches around the war in Ukraine and Monkeypox, with Omicron symptoms, train strikes, the opening of the Elizabeth line and cost of living payments all making the top 10.
