Most Searched Things on Google in 2026

The World Cup is over, and Google search has snapped back to normal, almost. With the tournament finished, not a single World Cup term remains in the global top 100, and “maps” has reclaimed a dominant #1 spot with a 1.83% traffic share, nearly 3.5x the next term. What filled the vacuum is a wave of celebrity news: a massive spike in Dolly Parton searches (up more than 34,000% versus the trailing average) made her the #2 search term globally, and, for the first time, the #1 search term in the US, ahead of “maps,” “gemini,” and “weather” entirely.

Google’s Gemini, last period’s US #1, slips to #3 in the US but keeps growing globally: the Korean-language query “제미나이” now sits at #9 worldwide (up from #21), the Japanese “ジェミニ” holds a top-50 spot, and the generic query “ai” still resolves to gemini.google.com as its top traffic leader. Meanwhile, soccer demand didn’t disappear with the World Cup, it fragmented: club terms like “real madrid” (82.7M searches), “arsenal,” “flamengo,” and “corinthians” now crowd the global top 20 as the European and Brazilian league seasons kick off, and an India–Sri Lanka cricket series (“ind vs sl”) posts the single biggest search spike of the period.

Using Similarweb’s data, I analyzed the top 100 Google searches globally, in the US, and across trending terms to understand what people are searching for, where that demand is going, and which topics are driving attention in 2026.

What are the most popular Google searches worldwide?

Here’s a sneak peek into the full list of the top 1,000 Google searches, which you can download below.

Key stats

• Top searched keyword: maps 
• Search volume (for #1): ~64.7M
• Top traffic leader (for #1): google.com 
• Total volume (Top 100): ~2.41B searches 
• Most common traffic leader (Top 100): youtube.com 
• Unique traffic leaders (Top 100): 49

Takeaway

• “Maps” is back to being the undisputed #1 global search, with a 1.83% traffic share, nearly 3.5x the share of the #2 term. That’s the clearest sign of a post-World Cup reset: last period, more than 30 tournament-related terms crowded the global top 100; this period, exactly zero remain. Search demand has scattered back across utilities, entertainment, and club sports, and the numbers show it: the top 100 now spreads across 49 unique traffic-leading domains (up from 29), and YouTube, still the most common traffic leader, leads just 24 of the top 100 queries, down from 44 during the knockout rounds.
• Celebrity news filled much of the vacuum. “Dolly parton” debuts at #2 globally with over 72 million searches, “hayden panettiere” lands at #11 with 85.7 million, the second-highest raw volume on the entire list behind only “weather”, and “lindsay clancy” (#10) and “tim curry” (#12) round out an unusually news-heavy top 15. All four are sudden spikes rather than steady demand, which is why they rank high on traffic share despite being absent from prior lists.
• Soccer demand didn’t vanish with the World Cup, it moved back to the clubs. “Real madrid” sits at #7 with 82.7 million searches, followed by “arsenal” (#18), “flamengo” (#19), and “corinthians” (#20), with “premier league,” “la liga,” “süper lig,” Turkish clubs (“beşiktaş,” “galatasaray,” “fenerbahçe”), and Brazil’s Série A sides filling out more than a dozen slots as the club season kicks off across Europe and South America. Cricket surges too: “ind vs sl” lands at #13 with 54.2 million searches on the back of an India–Sri Lanka series, alongside “cricbuzz” at #6.
• Gemini’s global footprint keeps widening. The Korean-language query “제미나이” jumps from #21 last period to #9, the Japanese “ジェミニ” holds at #46, and the generic query “ai” (#25, nearly 19 million searches) still resolves to gemini.google.com as its top traffic leader, together, gemini.google.com-led queries account for over 31 million searches in the global top 100 alone.

What are the most popular Google searches in the US?

Key stats

• Top searched keyword: dolly parton 
• Search volume (for #1): ~41.1M 
• Top traffic leader (for #1): instagram.com 
• Total volume (Top 100): ~600.4M searches 
• Most common traffic leader (Top 100): youtube.com 
• Unique traffic leaders (Top 100): 44

Takeaway

• “Dolly parton” is the #1 US search term outright, with a 1.29% traffic share and 41.1 million searches, a news-driven spike of more than 34,000% versus her trailing average. The surge shows up across the long tail too: related queries like “dolly parton died,” “carl thomas dean,” “dolly parton songs,” and “dolly parton net worth” all appear further down the top 1,000, the signature pattern of a major celebrity news cycle. It’s the first time in recent periods that a person, rather than a utility or product query, tops the US list, pushing “maps” to #2 and last period’s #1, “gemini,” to #3. Similar news-cycle spikes drive “lindsay clancy” (#4), “hayden panettiere” (#6), and “tim curry” (#8) into the top 10.
• Gemini’s slide to #3 is about the competition, not decline: “gemini” (15.3M searches) plus “gemini ai” (#19) still put Google’s AI assistant firmly in the US top tier, and misspellings and variants (“gemeni,” “gemni,” “gem”) resolving to gemini.google.com suggest the underlying demand keeps broadening.
• With the World Cup over, US sports search has rotated hard into the fall calendar: “nfl” (#24) leads a wave of team queries (“49ers,” “ravens,” “seahawks,” “patriots,” “minnesota vikings”), the WNBA holds strong (“wnba” #10, “sophie cunningham” #31, “caitlin clark” #69), and the MLB pennant race puts “astros,” “atlanta braves,” “detroit tigers,” and “texas rangers” all inside the top 100. “Leagues cup” (#12) and “inter miami” (#62) carry club soccer interest forward.
• Entertainment demand consolidated around a few big titles: “spiderman brand new day” appears three times in the top 100 across spelling variants (#13, #30, #39), “house of the dragon” holds at #17, “ted lasso season 4” (#33) and “reacher” (#25) lead the streaming slate, and Christopher Nolan’s “the odyssey” slides from #8 last period to #42 as its news cycle cools.
• The commercial-content pattern from last period persists: protect-iq.com is the traffic leader for “best antivirus” (#46), “free vpn vs paid” (#74), and “best password manager” (#94), while couponvault.net captures “aliexpress coupon” (#40), single affiliate-style domains continuing to own multiple buyer-intent categories at once. Overall, the US top 100 now spans 44 unique traffic leaders (up from 29), with YouTube leading 21 queries, another sign that post-tournament search demand is far less consolidated.

What are the most trending Google searches?

Key stats

• Top trending keyword: maps 
• Search volume (for #1): ~64.7M 
• Top traffic leader (for #1): google.com 
• Total volume (Top 100): ~2.38B searches 
• Most common traffic leader (Top 100): youtube.com 
• Unique traffic leaders (Top 100): 49

Takeaway

• With no single tournament dominating search, this period’s trending list looks very different from the last one: instead of one event monopolizing the spikes, dozens of unrelated stories are trending at once. “Maps” tops the list on traffic share (up 211% period-over-period), but the real story is in the growth rates further down.
• The single biggest spike of the period is cricket: “ind vs sl” grew more than 850,000% versus its trailing average, reaching 54.2 million searches as the India–Sri Lanka series took over the subcontinent’s search demand, with “cricbuzz” (#6) riding the same wave.
• Celebrity news cycles produced the next tier of spikes: “dolly parton” (+34,354%, 72.3M searches), “hayden panettiere” (+19,469%, 85.7M), “tim curry” (+17,232%, 41.4M), and “lindsay clancy” (+3,924%) all surged from near-zero baselines, a reminder that a single news story can outrank years of steady utility demand in a monthly snapshot.
• The other engine of trending demand is the club soccer restart: “leagues cup” jumped nearly 15,000%, while “epl” (+5,413%), “laliga” (+5,290%), “süper lig” (+5,345%), and “libertadores” (+4,294%) all spiked together as league play resumed across Europe, Turkey, and South America. Gaming adds one more: “gta 6 leaks” surged almost 35,000%, with reddit.com as its top traffic leader.
• YouTube is again the most common traffic leader (23 of the top 100), but the trending list now spans 49 unique domains, more than double last period’s 24, confirming that attention has fragmented from one global event into many regional and topical stories.

Where can you find data on the top Google searches?

To create these lists, I used Similarweb’s Demand Trends feature and Keyword Research Tool, here’s a quick breakdown of how I did it:

• 1. In the Market Analysis suite, go to ‘Demand Trends’
• 2. Select ‘All Industries’ as shown below, or, to get a more targeted list, choose a specific industry
• 3. Select either ‘Worldwide’ data or a specific country in the country filter on the top right
• 4. For the trending terms I filtered the data based on ‘Trending Terms’

Then, to sort by traffic (like I did) or for other further analysis, download the full list and filter from there.

Methodology

I updated this page in September 2026 using data from August 2026. This provides you with an accurate and reliable view of the search landscape and top searches during that period.

The lists are for worldwide, US and trending terms.

I have included: average monthly search volume, traffic (how many of the searches end up going to a website), traffic share, and the traffic leader.

Similarweb Search Intelligence allows you to view things people search for by country and industry. Our data covers billions of keywords worldwide (we’re constantly growing our keyword list each and every day, with real searches as they happen), and we analyze over 2 terabytes of data each day.

FAQs

What is the most searched thing on Google in 2026?

Based on Similarweb’s data, the most searched query worldwide is “maps,” with approximately 64.7 million searches and a 1.83% traffic share, nearly 3.5x the share of the next term. With the FIFA World Cup over, “maps” has reclaimed the top spot it briefly shared with tournament queries.

What is the most searched thing on Google in the US?

In the US, the most searched query is “dolly parton,” with approximately 41.1 million searches. A news-driven spike of more than 34,000% versus her trailing average pushed her past “maps” (#2) and “gemini” (#3), the first time in recent periods a person, rather than a utility or product, tops the US list.

What is the top trending Google search?

By traffic share, the top trending search is “maps,” up 211% period-over-period. The single biggest spike, however, is “ind vs sl,” which grew more than 850,000% to reach 54.2 million searches as the India–Sri Lanka cricket series got underway.

What happened to World Cup searches?

The tournament ended, and search demand reset almost overnight: not a single World Cup term remains in the global or US top 100, after more than 30 crowded the global list last period. Soccer interest shifted back to club competitions instead, “real madrid,” “arsenal,” “flamengo,” and “corinthians” all sit inside the global top 20.

Why is Dolly Parton the #1 search in the US?

A major news cycle drove searches for “dolly parton” up more than 34,000% versus her trailing average. The spike extends across related queries, “dolly parton died,” “carl thomas dean,” “dolly parton songs,” and “dolly parton net worth” all appear in the US top 1,000, the classic footprint of a breaking celebrity news story.

Where does Google’s Gemini rank now?

“Gemini” slips from #1 to #3 in the US but remains one of the biggest product queries on Google, with 15.3 million searches plus “gemini ai” at #19. Globally, the Korean-language query “제미나이” jumps to #9, the Japanese “ジェミニ” holds at #46, and the generic query “ai” still resolves to gemini.google.com as its top traffic leader.

Which everyday queries are still searched highly?

Utility searches like “maps,” “weather,” and “news” remain among the top queries globally, showing that people still rely on Google heavily for practical, everyday needs, and with no major tournament running, those staples dominate the top of the list again.

Why does one domain keep showing up as the traffic leader for “best antivirus,” “best password manager,” and similar searches?

In the US top 100, protect-iq.com is the traffic leader for “best antivirus,” “free vpn vs paid,” and “best password manager,” while couponvault.net leads “aliexpress coupon.” The pattern from last period persists: single review or affiliate-style sites capturing visibility across multiple commercial search categories at once.

Why does YouTube appear so often as a traffic leader?

YouTube is the most common traffic leader across all three top 100 lists, leading 21–24 queries per list. That’s a much smaller share than during the World Cup (when it led 44–46), reflecting how search demand has fragmented from one global event back into many regional sports, entertainment, and news stories.