Key Points

• Global search trends reveal shifting interests worldwide.

• Celebrities and politics dominated global search trends.

• Tech launches strongly influenced global search trends.

Google’s new “Year in Search” report gives a clear picture of what people were most interested in around the world in 2025. The most searched topics were religious changes, political violence, and growing uncertainty about the digital world. The data, which came out on Thursday, shows the biggest increases in search traffic around the world and shows the people, events, and technologies that sparked public interest.

The Pope, conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, Apple’s iPhone 17, and the growing debate over a possible TikTok ban in the United States were all at the top of the list. Their dominance shows that the past year has been full of political unrest, changes in institutions, and more scrutiny of big tech platforms.

Events around the world change search interest

Kirk was killed while giving a speech at Utah Valley University on September 10. This caused the biggest rise in global news searches of the year. His death caused an immediate surge of online interest as millions of people looked for information about his political career, public impact, and the circumstances of the shooting. Google said that Kirk’s Wikipedia page was one of the most popular pages of the year, showing how big the response was around the world.

Changes in religious leadership also caused a lot of searches. The death of Pope Francis led to a lot of questions around the world, and soon after, searches for the historic election of Pope Leo XIV, the first American to become pope, rose sharply. His election on May 8 kept people in Europe, Latin America, and Africa interested. These are the places where the Catholic population is growing the fastest.

AI tools and tech products are on the rise

Consumer technology kept changing the way people searched. The iPhone 17 from Apple was one of the most-watched products of the year. It had better AI processing, display technology, and battery design. In the weeks leading up to its launch and again during the global rollout phases, searches went through the roof, especially in areas where smartphone use was growing.

Artificial intelligence was still a big reason why people searched. Google said that its own AI model, Gemini, was one of the most searched tech tools of 2025, along with DeepSeek, a Chinese AI platform that is growing quickly and is becoming popular in Asia and parts of Europe. As businesses and consumers tried out automation in their daily tasks, interest in AI tools grew steadily over the course of the year.

TikTok’s legal problems make search traffic go up

One of the year’s most consistent search spikes was caused by the U.S. government’s long-running effort to limit or force the sale of TikTok’s American operations. While lawmakers worked out a deal that required the sale to a buyer approved by the government, users looked for news on deadlines, national security issues, and possible shutdown scenarios. Google said that the lack of clarity around TikTok showed how quickly regulatory debates can change how people use the internet around the world.