What the world asked Google in 2025

Every year, Google’s Year in Search does more than rank trending queries. It captures a collective state of mind, what people worried about, tried to understand, escaped into, or leaned on when certainty felt scarce.

In 2025, that snapshot revealed a world no longer reacting to change, but learning to live inside it. Artificial intelligence dominated searches not as a novelty, but as a necessity. Global crises remained unresolved. And beneath the data, a quieter pattern emerged: people searching not just for information, but for orientation.

AI: From curiosity to infrastructure

If earlier years were defined by questions like “What is AI?” or “Will AI replace jobs?”, 2025 marked a clear shift. The dominant searches were no longer theoretical, they were practical.

Across regions, users increasingly searched for:

Best AI tools for work

AI for studying

AI image editing

AI productivity hacks

Artificial intelligence had moved from curiosity to infrastructure, embedded in daily routines, education, creativity, and decision-making. People weren’t asking whether to use AI; they were asking how to use it better.

That normalization, however, came with unease. Searches related to AI ethics, deepfakes, misinformation, and data privacy continued to rise. The picture that emerges is not blind adoption, but cautious dependence: a world embracing AI while quietly questioning who controls it, and at what cost.

A year shaped by instability

Technology may have led the charts, but global anxiety remained a constant undertone.

Geopolitical tensions, environmental disasters, and political uncertainty drove sharp spikes in news-related searches. Rather than reacting to isolated shocks, users appeared to be tracking prolonged instability, searching for explanations, consequences, and timelines.

Among the most searched news topics worldwide:

Charlie Kirk assassination

Iran-related developments

US government shutdown

Selection of a new Pope

TikTok ban implementation

Natural disasters also pushed millions online for real-time updates, with intense interest in:

Los Angeles wildfires

Hurricane Melissa

These searches point to a year where Google functioned less as a news portal and more as a coping tool, a place to verify, contextualize, and regain a sense of control amid constant disruption.

Health, burnout, and the search for balance

Health-related searches in 2025 reflected a shift away from crisis-driven spikes toward long-term self-preservation.

Instead of a single dominant illness, Google recorded steady growth in searches related to:

Sleep quality

Stress management

Longevity

Nutrition

Cognitive health

Mental health queries, particularly around burnout, anxiety, and digital overload, were especially prominent among younger users. The data suggests a generation less focused on treatment and more on prevention, resilience, and sustainability in a world that rarely slows down.

Looking for meaning, not just information

Alongside technology and crisis, something quieter surfaced in search behavior: a renewed interest in identity and grounding.

Searches related to traditions, language, spirituality, belief systems, and cultural heritage increased, often framed as ways to cope with speed, abstraction, and constant change. Whether through religion, astrology, philosophy, or ritual, people appeared to be seeking anchors.

It reflects a growing paradox of the digital age: the more global and automated life becomes, the more individuals search for personal and cultural specificity.

Entertainment as escape and common ground

Despite uncertainty, entertainment remained a global constant.

Most searched movies worldwide

Anora

Superman

The Minecraft Movie

Thunderbolts

Sinners

Most searched movies in the US

KPop Demon Hunters

Sinners

The Minecraft Movie

Happy Gilmore 2

Thunderbolts

Actor searches mirrored these trends, with Mikey Madison topping global searches after Anora, while Pedro Pascal led searches in the US.

Music followed a familiar pattern: new artists emerged, but Taylor Swift continued to dominate song searches, with titles like Wood and The Fate of Ophelia appearing repeatedly.

Sports, gaming, and shared spectacle

Sports searches reflected both global tournaments and regional loyalties.

Top global sports searches

FIFA Club World Cup

Asia Cup

ICC Champions Trophy

Top US sports searches

Ryder Cup

4 Nations Face-Off

UFC 313

In gaming, Arc Raiders led global searches, while Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 topped interest in the United States.

Travel, books, and imagined escapes

Even as uncertainty persisted, people continued to dream or plan.

Trending travel searches included:

Prague

Edinburgh

Tokyo

Boston

Seattle

Meanwhile, Google Maps data revealed a renewed fascination with bookstores — spaces associated with slowness, culture, and escape.

Top searched bookstores globally

Livraria Lello (Porto)

Animate Ikebukuro Main Store (Tokyo)

El Ateneo Grand Splendid (Buenos Aires)

Top searched bookstores in the US

Powell’s City of Books (Portland)

Strand Bookstore (New York)

The Last Bookstore (Los Angeles)

Literature searches also pointed backward as much as forward, with George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984 reappearing alongside contemporary bestsellers like Regretting You and Onyx Storm.

What 2025 really revealed

Google’s Year in Search 2025 does not describe a world obsessed with trends. It describes a world trying to keep up.

AI dominates not because it is exciting, but because it is unavoidable. Crises persist not because they are new, but because they remain unresolved. And curiosity itself has shifted from discovery to navigation, from wonder to survival.

Perhaps the most telling change is this: people are no longer asking “What is happening?”
They are asking “How do we live with it?”

And that may be the most revealing search trend of all.