Do More › Web & Search Top Google Searches of 2016: What The World Was Looking For What were you Googling that year? Share Pin Email Print Web & Search Search Engines Best of the Web Safety & Privacy Running a Website by Jerri Collins Updated August 19, 2018 Google releases a collection of what the world was searching for at the close of every year. This list reflects what we were most interested in as a global culture, and provides an intriguing way to collate and process what most captivated us as a society. What Did People Look for in 2016? Screenshot At the close of every year, the world's most popular search engine, Google, releases a comprehensive list of the most searched for queries worldwide in a variety of categories, anything from Entertainment to Politics to Sports. It's always fascinating to look back on what we were searching for, to see what we were collectively interested in and look forward to the year ahead. In this article, we'll take a high-level look at what the most popular Google searches were in 2016. Top Searches Credit: TaPhotograph The top overall Google searches for 2016 reflected our society's interests in culture, entertainment, and politics. The gaming phenomenon Pokemon Go was incredibly popular, as was the new Apple gadget, who won the Powerball, and the untimely deaths of superstars Prince and David Bowie. Pokémon GoiPhone 7Donald TrumpPrincePowerballDavid BowieDeadpoolOlympicsSlither.ioSuicide Squad Global News Credit: Getty Images People all over the world searched for these events more than any others in 2016. The US election was the top search overall globally in the category of news events, outpacing the Olympics, the controversial Brexit decision, and the tragic shooting in Orlando. US ElectionOlympicsBrexitOrlando ShootingZika VirusPanama PapersNiceBrusselsDallas ShootingKumamoto Earthquake As always, sports events also garnered a huge amount of searches globally. Historically, any year that is an Olympics year sees that search take the top spot in Google, and 2016 is no exception to that rule - although the World Series did almost take that first place position. Here are the top sports-related events searches for 2016: Rio OlympicsWorld SeriesTour de FranceWimbledonAustralian OpenEK 2016T20 World CupCopa AméricaRoyal RumbleRyder Cup People Credit: Pete Saloutos Who we searched for in 2016 reflects what was most on the vast majority of people's minds in 2016: the US election, politics, the Olympics, and as always, entertainment. Not surprisingly looking at the trends on other 2016 Google top search charts, Trump ended up being the person most searched for globally in 2016, followed by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Melania Trump and gold medal-winning gymnast Simone Biles. Donald TrumpHillary ClintonMichael PhelpsMelania TrumpSimone BilesBernie SandersSteven AveryCéline DionRyan LochteTom Hiddleston In addition, the world lost a few of its best and brightest, as reflected in the following searches. 2016 saw the loss of great entertainers to stars of the stage to sports superstars. PrinceDavid BowieChristina GrimmieAlan RickmanMuhammad AliLeonard CohenJuan GabrielKimbo SliceGene WilderJosé Fernández Entertainment Credit: Image Source One of the most popular ways to use a search engine is to simply look up information about something we want to watch or listen to. That trend seemed to continue in 2016, as the most popular entertainment searches across movies, music, and television reflect below. The top movie searches in 2016 seem to reflect our love of superhero movies, in a variety of genres. Deadpool, a dark breakout superhero hit, won the top search spot in 2016, followed by another dark superhero movie. In fact, out of the ten searches on this list, five are superhero movies, which is a trend that has not necessarily been seen before. For movies, the top Google searches of 2016 were: DeadpoolSuicide SquadThe RevenantCaptain America Civil WarBatman v SupermanDoctor StrangeFinding DoryZootopiaThe Conjuring 2Hacksaw Ridge Singer Celine Dion topped the list of most searched for musicians this year, followed by Kesha, Michael Buble, Creed, and Dean Fujioka. For music and musicians, the top Google searches of 2016 were: Céline DionKeshaMichael BubléCreedDean FujiokaKehlaniTeyana TaylorGrace VanderwaalOzunaLukas Graham Interestingly enough, in 2016 , all five of the top five searches reflect shows that were not on traditional network TV. For television, here's what we searched for most in 2016: Stranger ThingsWestworldLuke CageGame of ThronesBlack MirrorFuller HouseThe CrownThe Night OfDescendants of the SunSoy Luna Continue Reading