Google has revealed that the most searched trending term or word of 2022 in the United States and across the globe is ‘wordle’.
Wordle is a popular online game that offers players six chances to guess a five-letter word daily. Some days, however, getting the answer is tricky, prompting people to search for hints, tips and even the result.
According to the American search engine, wordle beat perhaps newsier topics, such as “election results” and “Betty White” in the United States, and “Queen Elizabeth” and “Ukraine” globally.
Google revealed in a blog post on Wednesday, that its annual Year-in-Search report examined the “moments, people and trends that sparked our collective curiosity” on the search platform.
It noted noting that wordle was the “top trending search globally, as guessing five-letter words every day became a way of life.”
A Brooklyn-based software engineer formerly at Reddit, Josh Wardle released the game in October 2021, and it quickly became a cultural phenomenon.
Months later, the New York Times bought wordle in February 2022 to reinforce its gaming subscription business and attract new people to the newspaper.
The report also disclosed that Ukraine also topped the 2022 list of trending news topics, while Queen Elizabeth’s passing was the second most trending news topic. The third most popular news topic globally was election results.
Johnny Depp was the most searched person globally, likely due to his televised slander trial against his ex-wife, Amber Heard, who was the third most searched person of the year.
Will Smith was the second most searched person this year probably emanating from the slap he gave comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars Awards on March 27, 2022.