AFCON, Oxlade, Will Smith, Queen Elizabeth, Buga, Others Lead 2022 Google Search Lists

Google on Wednesday announced the results of its 2022 Year In Search, revealing the most searched terms, people, actors, musicians, topics, questions and more that captured the interest of Nigerians the most throughout this year.

Google’s Year in Search is an annual analysis that reveals the top trending lists and also spotlights what the world searches to see, learn and do. In Nigeria, the result for this years’ Year in Search shows a heightened interest in politics, entertainment, sports, lifestyle and notable personalities.

The 2022 Year in Search lists provide a snapshot into what piqued Nigerians’ curiosity in a year that saw major sporting events, high profile deaths, and in the run up to Nigeria’s election in February 2023.

The Africa Cup of Nations, referred to as AFCON, and  Casemiro, Brazilian football player, topped the categories of top trending searches and top athletes and sports people respectively. Nigeria was eliminated from the 2022 AFCON competition by Tunisia in a 1 – 0 defeat as Senegal went on to beat Egypt to win their first Africa Cup of Nations title earlier this year. The strike action by ASUU, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, that lingered for eight months got the Union in second place in the top trending searches by Nigerians in the period under review.

Oxlade, Nigerian singer and songwriter,  topped both categories of top trending people and top trending musicians searched by Nigerians this year. Asake, an Afrobeat singer signed to YBNL Nation came up in second place in the top trending musicians list. Anikulapo, a Nigerian epic fantasy film starring Kunle Remi and produced by Kunle Afolayan topped the category of trending movies and series.

Questions like, ‘Who is Peter Obi’s running mate?’, ‘Who is the APC Presidential candidate?’, ‘Who is Atiku’s running mate?’, ‘Who is leading in the Osun State election?’, ‘Who  ’s running mate?’ and ‘Who is Peter Obi?’, reveal the increased interest of Nigerians for politics and the elections happening next year.

Entertainment related search terms like ‘Finesse lyrics’, ‘Buga’, the song by Kizz Daniel featuring Tekno and ‘Will Smith’ all topped their categories revealing Nigerians’ interest for lyrics, songs and celebrity personalities.

And in a year with a number of high profile deaths, the death of Queen Elizabeth was the most searched loss, followed by gospel singer Osinachi Nwachukwu, who died in April and actress Ada Ameh who died in August.

Other top searched  questions like, ‘How to link NIN?’, ‘How to buy shares?’, ‘How to register for PVC online?’, ‘What is Lupus?’ and “What is NATO?’ showed how Nigerians made use of Search to find out more about their interests in 2022.