Wordle, World Cup and Encanto: What were 2022's top Google searches?

Have you wondered what everyone was thinking about this year?

Well Google thinks it has a pretty good idea - it's put together a list of our top searches from 2022.

Google's search engine is the most used around the world so it has a lot of information about what people have been searching for.

Films, questions, locations and games all have their top search lists - so we've put together our favourites!

What was the most searched thing?

Wordle was played by millions of people all over the world!

You're probably wondering what the top search of the year was...

It was Wordle! What, you haven't heard of it?

Wordle is an online word game that became really popular with adults earlier in the year.

It involves guessing a word, and using clues to work out which letters are right. There was a new puzzle every day, and people often shared their answers on social media.

Top-searched films

Encanto followed Mirabel as she tried to save her family's house and their magical powers - it was very popular this year!

Did you watch Encanto this year? It was the most-searched film title for the UK!

Disney revealed the film was watched more than 180 million times earlier in the year after it came out.

Everyone really was Talking about Bruno!

Next up on the list was The Batman, Uncharted, Thor: Love and Thunder and Black Adam.

Waiting for the World Cup

Despite the World Cup only just starting last month in Qatar, all the build up excitement was spotted by Google searches!

As well as being the second-most search term in the whole of the UK, "When does the World Cup start?" was the third-most popular "When" question.

The World Cup was also the most searched sports event, followed by the Australian Open, the Africa Cup of Nations, The Uefa Nations League and the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Keep up to date with everything World Cup-related on Newsround here.

Checking the news

Queen Elizabeth II died in September this year. She was the longest running British monarch in history.

In the UK, the rest of the top general searches of the year were marked by important events in the year, such as (in order) the football World Cup, Queen Elizabeth II and Ukraine.

There were lots of searches about Queen Elizabeth II, including "When is the Queen's funeral?" as the top searched "When" question.

The Queen also featured in the top "how many" questions, with "How many people watched the Queen's funeral".

Despite pandemic-related searches not being high in top searches this year, the fifth most search thing in the UK was Lateral Flow.

This is Wrexham - the UK's newest city!

However, the top "how many" question was "How many cities are there in Wales?". If you're curious, it's seven.

Last year that answer was six, but in September Wrexham was officially made a city thanks to the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.