In our continuing series of examining Google Search Trends to gain insights into the top keywords queried in the USA, we present our findings for December 2022.
Every day, we capture the top three keyword phrases in terms of search volume as reported by Google Trends (US Only). Each term has an estimated query volume attached to it, which we also record. The number scale tops out at 10,000,000+ with a lower limit of 200,000+ (sometimes 100,000+). After the conclusion of the month, we look at the phrases we collected along with their volumes to get an understanding of what drove queries for the month.
The Final Report For 2022
When the calendar flips to the month of December, there’s a feeling of reflection that we, as writers of this blog series, feel we must express. Capturing the top 3 queries from Google’s Daily Trends reporting module is a manual effort and because this effort takes time, our minds need to be focused on these phrases. We can’t escape the pondering of why these keywords were queried in Google. At the end of the year, our thoughts drift to the wonder of what we learned. Have we learned anything from examining these top keywords?
Looking back at the year, we observed behavior that’s similar to past years with little nuances that were unique to 2022. For instance, people really like searching about sports but this year, the World Cup captivated Google searchers. You’ll learn more about World Cup queries in this report. When famous people die, their name typically becomes a top query of the day. Predictably, queries related to Queen Elizabeth II’s death were on another level in terms of volume.
Lastly, the biggest takeaway was the searches for medical conditions. If there was an announcement of a famous person having a condition, it drove people to search. For example, when the family of Bruce Willis stated he was stepping back from acting on March 30th, 2022 because of his aphasia diagnosis, it was queried over 10 million times. Last month, we had another query that fit this particular category, which we’ll examine later on in this post.
Top Phrases of 2022 12th Month
The top queries of December 2022 are as follows:
- Kirstie Alley – 12/5/2022 – 10,000,000+ queries
- tWitch – 12/14/2022 – 10,000,000+ queries
- Argentina vs France – 12/17/2022 – 10,000,000+ queries
Sadly, the first two are associated with deaths. Kirstie Alley died on December 5th and the DJ Stephen “tWitch” Boss died on the 13th. The championship match for the World Cup occurred on the 17th and many people were engaged with the game on Google Search.
December is for Holidays
December is the month for holidays. Let’s see which ones were searched for the most.
- Pearl Harbor Day – 12/7/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Merry Christmas – 12/24/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Boxing Day – 12/25/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- Happy New Year 2023 – 12/30/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
Pearl Harbor Day has been gaining search query popularity over the past two years. We were not surprised to see the query make the daily top 3 last year since it was the 80 year anniversary of the attack. This year, the query volume for the phrase wasn’t as high as it was in 2021 but it was still enough to make our collection.
The new holiday query for this year was Boxing Day. In our 4 year records, we never saw this holiday make the list. 2022 changed that. Let’s look at all the available data for this term.
The highest peak occurred in 2019 but slid a bit in 2020. Since then, search interest has been on the rise. Will we see a larger peak for this day after Christmas celebration in the USA in 2023? We will have to see!
Medical Condition Queries
As it was stated in the look back at 2022, medical conditions of famous people drive search queries.
- Stiff person syndrome – 12/8/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
When Celine Dion revealed she was postponing her tour because she had Stiff-Person Syndrome (SPS), the need to know more was satisfied with Google Search. It’s important to know that when it comes to health information, Google is still the place to research.
Popular Movies & Shows
December 2022 had a few entertainment options that were worth noting:
- White Lotus – 12/11/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Black Adam – 12/16/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- Emily in Paris – 12/21/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- Glass Onion – 12/23/2022 – 500,000+ queries
The season 2 finale of the HBO TV show, “The White Lotus” aired on December 11th and people wanted to know more. The Black Adam film was available for streaming on the 16th. The third season of “Emily in Paris” became available on the 21st and on the 23rd, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery was released on Netflix.
In addition to these queries, Amazon announced that it secured the rights to the intellectual property of the Warhammer 40,000 game.
- Warhammer – 12/16/2022 – 100,000+ queries
Henry Cavill is set to star and serve as an executive producer in future shows and films.
Special Elections and Other News
The final election of the 2022 midterms was held on the 6th of December.
- Georgia Senate Race – 12/6/2022 – 5,000,000+ queries
Brittney Griner was released from Russian custody on the 8th after being detained for months.
- Brittney Griner – 12/8/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
Sorry if you were traveling last month on Southwest Airlines, but you probably know better than most that their canceled flights were a hot topic.
- Southwest Airlines – 12/26/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
The former pope passed away on the 31st, almost 10 years after resigning from the papacy in 2013.
- Pope Benedict – 12/31/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
Greta Owned Twitter and Search
We’re not sure if you follow the trends on Twitter. We don’t follow them as closely as we do for Google. Last month, Greta Thunberg traded barbs with the former professional kickboxer Andrew Tate. The viral exchange eventually led to Tate’s arrest in Romania.
- Greta Thunberg – 12/27/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Greta Thunberg – 12/28/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Greta Thunberg – 12/29/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
For three days straight, Greta not only owned Andrew Tate but also Google Search.
NFL
As usual, sports-related queries made up most of our collection from last month. We broke up the list into 3 sections; NFL, NBA, and World Cup. Here is the timeline for teams in December 2022:
- Packers – 12/4/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Detroit Lions – 12/4/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Rams – 12/7/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Dallas Cowboys – 12/11/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Buccaneers – 12/11/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Patriots – 12/12/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- 49ers – 12/15/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Seahawks – 12/15/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- NFL – 12/17/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Patriots – 12/18/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Jacksonville Jaguars – 12/18/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Jets – 12/22/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Dallas Cowboys – 12/23/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Green Bay Packers – 12/24/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Raiders – 12/24/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Chargers – 12/26/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Dallas Cowboys – 12/28/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
Were people searching because their team won or lost in dramatic fashion? The answer is both. Here’s a list of NFL player names that made the list:
- Deion Sanders – 12/2/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Jimmy Garoppolo – 12/4/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Kyler Murray – 12/12/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Russell Wilson – 12/25/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- J.J. Watt – 12/25/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- J.J. Watt – 12/27/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Derek Carr – 12/28/2022 – 500,000+ queries
An ex-player took another job (Sanders), a few players got hurt (Garoppolo, Murray), a couple of players didn’t play well (Wilson, Carr), and one player is retiring (Watt).
NBA
When it comes to American professional sports, the NBA is the second most popular in search interest (next to the NFL). Did your favorite team/player make the list?
- Celtics – 12/10/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- Warriors – 12/14/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- Knicks – 12/20/2022 – 100,000+ queries
- Nets – 12/21/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- Luka Doncic – 12/27/2022 – 500,000+ queries
The lone player name (Doncic) scored 60 points on the 27th.
World Cup
Finally, the World Cup was still the most popular subject this month as it was in November 2022. Take a look at this timeline! Can you follow the teams through the matches?
- Cameroon vs Brazil – 12/1/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
- South Korea vs Portugal – 12/1/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Costa Rica vs Germany – 12/1/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Netherlands vs USA – 12/2/2022 – 5,000,000+ queries
- Argentina vs Australia – 12/2/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
- England vs Senegal – 12/3/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
- France vs Poland – 12/3/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- England vs Senegal – 12/3/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Portugal vs Switzerland – 12/5/2022 – 5,000,000+ queries
- Brazil vs South Korea – 12/5/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Croatia vs Brazil – 12/8/2022 – 5,000,000+ queries
- Netherlands vs Argentina – 12/9/2022 – 5,000,000+ queries
- Morocco vs Portugal – 12/9/2022 – 5,000,000+ queries
- England vs France – 12/9/2022 – 2,000,000+ queries
- France vs Morocco – 12/10/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- Argentina vs Croatia – 12/12/2022 – 5,000,000+ queries
- France vs Morocco – 12/13/2022 – 5,000,000+ queries
- Francia vs Marruecos – 12/13/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- Messi – 12/13/2022 – 200,000+ queries
- Argentina vs France – 12/14/2022 – 500,000+ queries
- Croatia vs Morocco – 12/17/2022 – 1,000,000+ queries
The championship query is listed in the first section of this report and it received over 10 million queries on the 17th. Interesting to note that the Spanish version of the France vs Morocco query also made the top 3 of the Daily Trends on the 13th. After the past two months, we have a better understanding of the USA’s interest in the World Cup and the diversity of the audience with a Spanish query making the report.
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