Google’s Year in Search 2025: These trending topics spiked big

Google today released its 2025 Year in Search list, but don’t mistake it for a ranking of the “top searches” or the “most searched” terms. This year’s recap focused on trending queries – the topics that grew the fastest compared with 2024. That shift reveals a lot about where Google Search is heading, and how it’s been evolving for years.

Why we care. Google chose to spotlight fast-rising, emerging queries. Freshness has long mattered in search, but the 2025 top trending queries list underscores an accelerating shift: the biggest AI search and SEO opportunities will come from new, developing topics – not evergreen informational ones. Your strongest wins may hinge on queries no SEO tool or LLM visibility platform can surface yet.

What people searched. Here are the top 10 trending Google Search queries of 2025 in the U.S.:

1. Charlie Kirk
2. KPop Demon Hunters
3. Labubu
4. iPhone 17
5. One Big Beautiful Bill Act
6. Zohran Mamdani
7. DeepSeek
8. Government shutdown
9. FIFA Club World Cup
10. Tariffs

Globally, these were the top 10 trending Google Search queries of 2025:

1. Gemini
2. India vs England
3. Charlie Kirk
4. Club World Cup
5. India vs Australia
6. DeepSeek
7. Asia Cup
8. Iran
9. iPhone 17
10. Pakistan and India

Global and U.S. trends. Here are some of the top trending queries by category, both globally and in the U.S. If a category lists only one name, it ranked the same in both regions.

• News: Charlie Kirk assassination / One Big Beautiful Bill Act
• Passings: Charlie Kirk
• Actors: Mikey Madison / Pedro Pascal
• People: d4vd / Zohran Mamdani
• Athletes: Terence Crawford / Shedeur Sanders
• Games: Arc Raiders / Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Lyrics: Dtmf – Bad Bunny / Wood – Taylor Swift
• Movies: Anora / KPop Demon Hunters
• Sports teams: Paris Saint-Germain F.C. / Seattle Mariners
• TV shows: Monster: The Ed Gein Story / The Hunting Wives
• Hum to search: Golden – HUNTR/X
• Podcasts: The Charlie Kirk Show / New Heights
• Google Maps – Bookstores: Livraria Lello, Porto District, Portugal / Powell’s City of Books
• Google Maps – Transit station: Kyoto Station, Kyoto, Japan / Grand Central Terminal

More U.S. trends. Google also shared a few additional U.S.-only trending queries from 2025:

• Trends: AI action figure
• Viral dishes: Hot honey cottage cheese sweet potato beef bowl
• Travel itinerary: Boston
• Why do kids say: 67

Bottom line. You want to win on emerging queries before they peak. Spot new trends early and publish before a topic peaks to capture visibility while competition is low. Evergreen content still matters, but the breakout wins come from what’s new – not what’s already known.